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

[Flyg0n]

Steven's eyes narrowed at the bumbling Flygon. They'd met before? When they were both human? He scrutinized the Flygon a bit more. He knew he was a hard person to miss; the constant recognition would be annoying if it wasn't such a boon. She wasn't familiar to him, though. What would a person who turned into a Flygon look like? Maybe she was a fan? Or maybe she'd taken his order at a coffee shop?

Plus she said they'd played this game before, which he definitely had not. A masquerade maybe, but this? He would have remembered this.

"Sorry, I have no idea who you are. If we get out of here though, I'd be happy to give you an autograph."

[[Just some fun flavor stuff before I get back to detectiving. Everything that follows is flavor and doesn't necessarily reflect my personal opinions]]

Hana narrowed her eyes. Was Steven just pretending not to know her? No. He seemed genuine. And rude. "I don't need your autograph." She spoke curtly, hardly able to believe her own tone. This... this was not her Steven. Not the smart, level-headed young man she'd know in that strange place. She was alone again.

"Excuse me, but both implied you were once... human? Honestly and truly? That's incredible...!" The stars in his eyes began to show as smile began to rise, but his forced himself to frown. Amazing discovery or not, everyone was still a suspect, regardless of origin. Still... it was an opportunity to learn. His unconscious grin betrayed his want to stay his feelings. "Perhaps we could talk about our respective pasts over some tea in the evening? Something to keep us from losing our heads over this stressful situation. If that's alright, of course. There are others here that I'd also have such an interest in talking with."

"Oh! Uh yeah, I used to be a human back... home. However that works." She shrugged awkwardly. "I guess I was transformed when I came here. I'd love that..." she began, then trailed off. What if he was a killer? Well, tea couldn't hurt either way. If he was somehow a killer in disguise, more information could only be good. "Tea would be lovely, thank you."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

[[Right, let's see about this, then. I thought I'd have more time and energy today having actually slept, so I was ready to give this a stronger shot, but I just found out the family dog has to be put to sleep this afternoon. This will limit my posting.]]

"What do you mean, can be dismissed? I'm not voting for you because I expect you to prove who you are, I'm saying you haven't been acting like someone who really has a useful role. If you'd reacted earlier like you really thought your role was that helpful, trying to persuade us why we should keep you around, then fine, I'd have backed off. Instead you just acted like you were cornered and didn't have time to make something up."

May took a deep breath. Her heart was still pounding, her skin hot. "It doesn't look like we're actually eliminating you now anyway since nobody else can see it for some reason, so by now if you were innocent saying anything about your role wouldn't help. But I'm suspicious of you for before."

She clenched her tiny fists, looking down. She was right. She felt it in her bones. Probably another person would die tonight, and keep dying, because nobody would agree with her.

And yet, she couldn't help but feel a sickening kind of relief.

"But she didn't do that! She was vague and waffly and not voicing any serious suspicion of anyone until I started accusing her for real, and only then did she suddenly go into rage mode accusing anyone and everyone. Seriously, doesn't anyone else see it?"

[[OOC, one of the reasons I didn't like her play at the beginning was actually that it felt more cautious than her town play in previous games! Obviously hard to mention in-character but.

And while I'm letting myself speak OOC about meta, like Pano just pointed out, her absolute refusal to make even a vague roleclaim under major pressure is also inconsistent with how she acted in the second anniversary mafia.]]

May glanced at the Purrloin. "I don't really see why you all are suspicious of her. I think it just seems like she zoned out. I don't think it feels like she's driven by some kind of agenda. If she was scheming with other people, I don't think she'd be acting this way."

[[Cosigning everything the late great May V. Wallace was saying.]]

[[I had a whole post typed too.... this does make me think we may have some unusual third party, like arsonist?]]

[[Absolute smoke. One death is no reason to speculate about arsonist.]]

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!"

[[False dichotomy. There could be an SK, an arsonist, a TP with no kill power, or no TP at all.]]

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 aren't the only two options. Also, Pano straight up voted for me and didn't retract. My current reading is that Pano is playing standard Pano town but as a ruder, more arrogant Steven, and sussed both myself and Tetra. People were suspicious of me partly because Free and I were covering each other, but as you all now now, Free was Town. Reassess your suspicions.]]

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 guess you took another look at Free's posts since this message, since you later retracted the idea that Free defended Tetra? Since Free was convinced Tetra was scum? Anyway, I don't like that you're prepared to take Tetra at her word without having read her post in depth. Have you reconsidered the degree to which you trust Tetra?]]

which one is Jackie again?

him

[[Howdy, Gojira! Nice to meet you. I'm Jackie, and my pronouns are they/them or she/her, as you can see below my profile picture. Welcome to TR, and I hope you have a good time this game, whatever the results.]]

Loic slapped down a giant trifold board. He'd suddenly produced a pointer and wildly began gesturing to the board with it.

View attachment 1940 Salem lookedup at the board with saucer eyes. "I have a really good feeling about Miminkyu Loïc! If they were Mafia, it would be a crazy amount of effort to compile all this just for Town to benefit from it as well! Mafia get to share their notes with each other, after all, so they don't have much reason to. It's possible that Loïc has a ton of time on his hands and thinks helping Town this much is worth making people less suspicious of him, or there's misleading information somewhere here... But I think it's much more likely that he's Town!"

[[Massive stenography posts give me a relatively strong townread. I am willing to extend some trust to Sind for the time being.]]

I would be willing to softclaim.

[[Claims are a huge gamble with such paltry evidence to back any of them up. I'd go for this strategy no earlier than Day Three at the soonest. Otherwise you're just asking the scumteam to snipe the best power roles. Worst case scenario, scumteam use the mass-claim to mislead town and get them to mislynch someone useful, then kill someone else useful, and secure a power advantage for the endgame.]]

Jackie’s a good mafia player. I haven’t seen them play scum

[[Thanks! I have never played scum. If I were scum, I honestly would've been psyched about finally getting to, and I'd have gone hard on Day One, making use of scumchat with absolute fervour. Alas, I am not only Town as usual, but I can't even rely on Chibi for top notch reads am more tired and overwhelmed than usual due to poor sleep and the boiler in my house being busted. Hard to get hype about Mafia when you're freezing your ass off.]]

Free also defended Tetra in her last post.

[[I see you've retracted this since I started composing the post, but I wanna emphasise that Free was very firm about voting for Tetra and did not retract her suspicions. I was right about Free being Town, and I believe Free and I together are right about Tetra being Mafia.]]

 

[Flyg0n]

[[Free is wrong again about me. Just because someone who was town died on D1 without having ample time to make a real read does not make her right.

Also I would advise against trusting jackie too fully. But I give leeway because if they are town and misplayed like I did thats understandable.]]

 

[Flyg0n]

[[Claims are a huge gamble with such paltry evidence to back any of them up. I'd go for this strategy no earlier than Day Three at the soonest. Otherwise you're just asking the scumteam to snipe the best power roles. Worst case scenario, scumteam use the mass-claim to mislead town and get them to mislynch someone useful, then kill someone else useful, and secure a power advantage for the endgame.]]

[[A little confused. You cosigned free with your life but you think town shouldn't reveal roles? Despite Free basically demanding I should reveal to avoid dying because they voted for me.

This reads really odd but could just be a slip-up/missstep?]]

 

[Flyg0n]

[[Also as seen in prior mafia games with different players and player types and experience levels, I think those who consider themselves good at reading should not be too hasty making definitive statements because I've seen quite a lot of completely wrong takes over my mafia time playing.

I am not saying not to sus I am just saying not to convince oneself of anything too definitively, especially early in the game.

Unless something else comes up I'll have to vote soon to avoid me dying...]]

 

[Flyg0n]

[[After reviewing and thinking as hard as I can and it seems like Jackie is just townie tunnelling? it bears all the marks of tunnelling, and I am hesitant to say a scum would tunnel so hard because when I flip innocent it would put a lot of heat on them.

Alternatively, this could be the ploy and play it off when they discover I'm innocent as just supporting Free? And as 'no scum would ever do that'. Hard to say.

Final alternative is a determined TP? Seems unlikely.

I feel inclined to start considering other helpful but less tunnel-y folks. Shinji is still on my radar, and Yellow too. Shinji may just be a beginner. I want to review more before I make any statetments.]]

 

[Flyg0n]

[[Okay I have again reviewed D2. I did find a bit of the pushback on the idea of TP's weird. It might be due to misunderstanding, so fair enough! Or it means there is a TP and they want to dissuade the idea?

Tentative readlist:

Town-lean
Pano - Feels like aggressive townie.
Sind - Very very helpful. Unless they're a scumteam with Jackie (lol doubtful) they seem at the very least, interested in helping town. They might be a TP though? No reason to target them yet.
Me - duh. Will role reveal soon.
Wind - Fairly neutral/good to me. They at least retracted their vote and only seem interested in helping, but I know they can good scum and town. Will wait and see.

Neutral
Jackie - wavering. It feels like bad scumplay to tunnel me when I'm innocent. They feel like tunneling town, like I said before. But the whole 'abstain followed by immediately voting me' feels weird like, scum scramble? And they never really replied to my arguments yet. BUT! I give big leeway, I know irl be like that. Plus, I feel like scum Jackie would be waaaay more cautious and careful.

Seren - Busy with full time job. Seems to react to things, this is neither good nor bad. At least recognizes that me mentioning TP out of the blue would be silly. Could be scum trying to win favor or just perceptive townie.

mild sus lean
Shinji - Obviously a beginner but might be beginner scum?

Yellow - this is veeerryyy tentative, not even a full sus. Yellow's plays just feel very... good? But good in the way that they might be faking town? I've seen scum yellow once and I know she's good. I like her plays, broadly speaking. She seems ready and willing to help and helpful. Which is good.... But might be bad.

Like I said this is not remotely definitive.

 

[HelloYellow17]

After reviewing and thinking as hard as I can and it seems like Jackie is just townie tunnelling? it bears all the marks of tunnelling, and I am hesitant to say a scum would tunnel so hard because when I flip innocent it would put a lot of heat on them.

[[Nnnnngh after reading Jackie’s posts, I’m less certain about them being mafia, but idk…something just doesn’t feel right about them and I can’t put my finger on it. Yes, Jackie has voted to abstain before, but none of those games they quoted were as small as this one. (Aside from Xmas mafia, I don’t actually know how large that one was, but also that was Jackie’s first game ever and it’s fairly normal for new players to want to abstain. Jackie is no longer a newbie.)

They are still on my radar. But I’ll hear what others have to say, too.

Sind is reading as solid town to me, thanks to her giant rundown post and other theories. Seems very pro-town to me.

I was about to ask Tetra for more reasoning on why she’s mildly sus of me, but I see she just posted!

I’ve noticed that I’ve been fairly neutral or mildly sus on most people’s read lists so far—which is fair. I’ve been keeping my cards very close to my chest because my role is a particularly tricky one to describe, and describing it fully would severely weaken how useful it is. However, I am still willing to make a softclaim if that will help put everyone’s minds at ease. It’s going to be tricky though, because it’s not a very straightforward role and I don’t want to say too much lest I lose what little edge I may have over scum. But I will do my best.]]

 

[Flyg0n]

[[Please allow me to claim first.

I reiterate this because then you can all know I didn't fake it and jackie can lay off. Also that said.

Important question for Jackie. @unrepentantAuthor .

You claim you are infallible, and I am scum. I have a fairly helpful town role that I think can benefit a lot. Would you prefer I reveal my role to get targeted or are you going to double down on your infallibility here.

Basically, I am asking you if I role reveal if:

A) that will be enough to make you drop this

B) Are you willing to fathom being wrong or will I have to let my power go to waste by claiming and potentially being targeted. Seeing as how you said claiming isn't a good idea. (Unless you're scum and you don't want me to reveal.)

I’ve noticed that I’ve been fairly neutral or mildly sus on most people’s read lists so far—which is fair. I’ve been keeping my cards very close to my chest because my role is a particularly tricky one to describe, and describing it fully would severely weaken how useful it is. However, I am still willing to make a softclaim if that will help put everyone’s minds at ease. It’s going to be tricky though, because it’s not a very straightforward role and I don’t want to say too much lest I lose what little edge I may have over scum. But I will do my best.]]

I'd rather only one townie claim today tbh! If you are town I don't want anyone claiming unless 100% necessary]]

 

[HelloYellow17]

[[Please allow me to claim first.

I reiterate this because then you can all know I didn't fake it and jackie can lay off. Also that said.

Important question for Jackie. @unrepentantAuthor .

You claim you are infallible, and I am scum. I have a fairly helpful town role that I think can benefit a lot. Would you prefer I reveal my role to get targeted or are you going to double down on your infallibility here.

Basically, I am asking you if I role reveal if:

A) that will be enough to make you drop this

B) Are you willing to fathom being wrong or will I have to let my power go to waste by claiming and potentially being targeted. Seeing as how you said claiming isn't a good idea. (Unless you're scum and you don't want me to reveal.)



I'd rather only one townie claim today tbh! If you are town I don't want anyone claiming unless 100% necessary]]

[[If you’d rather claim first, then go ahead! Let it be known that if only one or two people claim today, I think it’s decently safe to assume we have one or two Doctors or protectors of some kind that can at least try to protect you.]]

 

[Flyg0n]

[[tbh i don't even want protection! let them kill me. Better used on someone else maybe.

We'll see. I have a post ready but I am fairly reluctant to use it, but there may be no point in waiting.]]

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

[[Goddamnit I didn't say claiming was bad I said mass-claiming was unwise any earlier than day three. I won't have you mislead others about what I've said.]]

[[Anyway, I won't be eating crow because you'll flip Mafia.]]

[[Got some irl stuff to contend with, won't be posting for a bit. Don't recall any other votes today, but hopefully Inke will tally by the time I'm back in the saddle. Will try to spend some time this evening thinking more about who to target Day Three, since I don't have many very strong reads just yet.]]

[[A reminder to everyone to look for signs of people having non-public information and then detecting possible agendas as the prime scumhunting methods. Not 'they haven't posted enough' or 'they're sussing the wrong people' or even 'they're sussing the right people but it's part of some galaxy brain ploy'.]]

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

[[Also I had to skip responding to everything bc of irl stuff but I know people were querying my certainty about everyone having good roles – I missed the 'weak roles' note in the signup, I have a good role, I knew everyone got a role, therefore I assumed every member of town was non-expendable. I've made this argument before in other games.]]

 

[Flyg0n]

[[

[[Anyway, I won't be eating crow because you'll flip Mafia.]]

LOLL I'm gonna frame this and put it on my wall. It's gonna be funny.

Anyways I'm gonna claim but.

I want to do whatever necessary to clear myself without giving the mafia any help.

Let see.... maybe I can reveal the power but not who I used it on? But then the person might know anyways... Maybe I should reveal who it was used on but not what it is?]]

 

[Flyg0n]

[[I have some tasty crows lined up for ya jackie. And some hats to eat too.]]

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

[[I'm not falling for that.]]

 

[Flyg0n]

[[lol alright. just remember this as evidence you are not infallible]]

 

[Flyg0n]

[[Screenshotting this baby for the ages. And as evidence in general to be more cautious next time making hard claims D1! Even if I counter vote to tie it that may end up useless.

[[A reminder to everyone to look for signs of people having non-public information and then detecting possible agendas as the prime scumhunting methods. Not 'they haven't posted enough' or 'they're sussing the wrong people' or even 'they're sussing the right people but it's part of some galaxy brain ploy'.]]

And pray tell, what magical non-public info do I have, huh?

Anyways I might as well make a claim.
I can't quote my role. But I'll describe it.

Spoiler: scum don't look!

Spoiler: if ur scum back off

Spoiler: *squints* this is for town only

The description is flavored after a pokemon move Tailwind. The role itself is called 'Motivator'. It mentions how my Flygon character has learned to use her wings for something useful. It lets me use it at night to 'boost an allies speed' and the next night someone can use their night actions twice.

I didn't use it D1 because I didn't want to use it on scum before the day started and I got reads. This is why I flipped out D1 because I wanted to at least use my power once. Now that its D2 I had my chance.

If there is a protection power active I recommend picking not me, if you have another solid pick; since Jackie will just tunnel me if I survive to D3 and try to mislynch me, most likely. I don't think I'm worth protecting to let scum shoot me so we don't mislynch I guess.

I used the power on Pan last night.
Now sure, you could claim this is all made up but this would be a weirdly specific and hard thing to make up out of thin air. And I think any townie can verify the flavor vibes.

 

[Flyg0n]

[[I'm not falling for that.]]

[[I'd bet you money I'm town ;P. If I'm scum I'll write a 10 page report on why Flygon sucks and doesn't deserve a mega and why Incineroar is the ideal pokemon design. You can quote me on this. I'll write it before Christmas too! And publish it on my FFN account]]

 

[Flyg0n]

[[Anyways Jackie if you're still so certain somehow despite my many attempts to explain and clarify, who's the other scum then!!! Lets scumhunt them!!]]