[INNOCENTS WIN] First Anniversary Fanfic Mafia - Game Thread

[Negrek]

The day begins sedately enough. Even with a disappearance in their midst, the group is wary of jailing someone else, especially with so little evidence to go on. At the very least, they'd like some time to come to terms with Chibi's death--the very real evidence of the danger they face here.

But time there isn't. And as the day wears on, evidence rapidly comes to light. Suspicion swings back and forth between the members of the group, from the short-tempered charizard to the tall, multi-armed kwazai, to Professor Finnar, who remains cool despite it all. As the light begins to fade from the sky overhead the malleable ground beneath the group's feet ripples with uneasy streaks of color, reacting to rising emotion. Soon everyone's shouting over each other to be heard, accusations and votes shooting back and forth at a blistering pace. Somehow, out of the chaos, a new consensus is forming. Gensis' is mentioned once, and then again, and again.

"Me?" Genesis asks in horror. "But--wait--why? Now? I don't even know what to say!"

More voices join in, and Genesis jerks back reflexively when one of her feet abruptly sinks into the ground, gone soft and sucking and nearly as dark a color as the sky. She tugs, but it won't come free. Meanwhile, the last streaks of light are fading from the sky. "I didn't--now? I can't even think..." Her other leg starts sinking, too. "I never wanted to hurt anyone! If you keep going on like you are, you're all going to die!"

As the last light fades, the ground pulls Genesis the rest of the way under in one abrupt, fluid motion. A ripple of reddish color spreads briefly from the point where she disappeared, and after that, it's too dark to see anything at all.

Final Vote:

5 Persephone - Dragonfree, qva, elyvorg, DawningWinds, Starlight Aurate
4 DawningWinds - windskull, Namohysip, Tanuki, Persephone
1 Abstain - Sike Saner
1 Desper - NonAnalogue
1 Namohysip - Equitia

Not Voting: SparklingEspeon

Genesis (Persephone) has been jailed. She was Mafia.

Night 2 begins now and ends in 48 hours (at 10:00 PM UTC/6:00 PM EST May 12th) or when all night actions have been received.

 

[Negrek]

Yami Bakura is about even before light's returned to the sky overhead. A strange feeling's gripped him this night, its source unknown.

Yami Bakura looked at everyone hanging around. His conscience bothered him.

His conscience? That couldn't be--he didn't have a conscience.

Tell the truth.

Was it Ryou? Was Ryou aware, and trying to speak through him?

But Yami Bakura was much more powerful than his host. The poor human couldn't hope to overpower him.

Tell the truth!

Yami Bakura's muscles involuntarily twitched. Oh no--his host was regaining control!

"All right!" he screamed. "I'll tell the truth--I'm not Bakura! My real name isn't Yami Bakura at all--it's Florence!"

But his muscles kept twitching--

TELL THEM WHAT WE KNOW!

Florence was thrown to the ground by his left hand. He watched in horror as his left hand--completely out of his control--forcefully clawed its way into the ground and dug up chunks of earth, tracing out letters.

WE KNOW THE TRUTH
​

"STOP IT!" Florence screamed. But his hand--Ryou's hand--kept on forming letters in the ground.

WE KNOW WHO--​

With a loud scream, Florence grabbed a shard of ceramic from the teacup he broke earlier and plunged it into his left hand. Blood spurted out, and after a few last twitches, the left hand stopped moving. Florence let out maniacal laughter. The others all stood around and watched him lie on the floor, clutching his bleeding, twitching arm, laughing his head off.

"Good luck trying to tell them now, Ryou!" he cackled.

But his cackles ceased as he felt a sort of hum through the air. He leapt to his feet--the air around him was shimmering. He felt his movements slow, and darkness from some unknown source began to overtake him.

"No!" he screamed. "I can't die amongst these idiots! I haven't even bloody done ANYTHING! I haven't gotten to jail or kill or watch anyone be shred into a thousand bits! That's it--I'll kill you all, destroy this world and bring an end to everything now! Prepare to see my true form: Zorc Necrophades!"

Yami Bakura--or Florence--or Zorc--or Ryou--or whatever his name really was--let out a roar as his body quickly morphed into a colossal, black, draconid being. What few people hadn't been roused by Bakura's earlier shouts certainly couldn't sleep through that. They spilled out of their temporary shelters, staring in fear at his bulging muscular arms, his spiked head, and his...

...

They weren't sure how to feel at the sight of a second large dragon head sticking out from beneath his navel. The dragon head opened its jaws and inhaled deeply--a ball of some sort of energy glowed within, highlighting the fear in everyone's faces as they took in their final breaths.

But the air around Zorc crackled as though it were electric, and with the burst of one mighty thunderbolt, Zorc was struck down. His form fizzled away, leaving Bakura's small, human form standing for a few seconds, the Millennium Ring hanging loosely around his neck.

Yami Bakura looked up. His body was quickly dissipating into nothing. He smiled.

"So, I'm being sent to the darkness. Interesting... This darkness cannot defeat me. I am the Darkness."

With a final leery smile, he vanished. The Millennium Ring clanged as it hit the floor, the only piece of Yami Bakura left.

The stunned crowd was left to contemplate it in silence. With full "daybreak" overtaking the empty sky overhead, they don't have much time to track down another Mafia member before another one of them ends up like Bakura.

Yami Bakura (Starlight Aurate) has been eliminated. He was Innocent. Day 3 discussion is now open and will continue through 9:30 PM UTC/5:30 PM EST May 14.

(( I knew Starlight Aurate wanted to do something special for Bakura's death, so I asked her to write today's opener. Please don't take any differences between this and how I normally write day flavor to mean anything in game terms. ))

 

[kyeugh]

wow i'm alive tbh

i shall be accepting apologies from the doubting thomases effective immediately

 

[DawningWinds]

I switched qva and windskull.

All results involving either of these two should probably consider this switch.

 

[windskull]

Ah... Huh
Well that just happened. I don't know if I should laugh or be disturbed. Lol

 

[NonAnalogue]

-- Conversation initiated with WitchesBlue [FORTUNATA, FIAMETTA] --

[WB] what happened yall
[WB] yalls reactions are sayin something really weird just happened
[WB] im guessin the mafia got that bakura guy
[WB] but what happened
[WB] did he
[WB] like
[WB] explode or something
[WB] cmon yall help me out here

 

[DawningWinds]

-- Conversation initiated with WitchesBlue [FORTUNATA, FIAMETTA] --

[WB] what happened yall
[WB] yalls reactions are sayin something really weird just happened
[WB] im guessin the mafia got that bakura guy
[WB] but what happened
[WB] did he
[WB] like
[WB] explode or something
[WB] cmon yall help me out here

[["He turned into a dragon. I'd really like to know the science behind how that happened."]]

 

[Namohysip]

[[

A heavy mallet slammed into the ground, sending dark ripples across the featureless landscape. "They knew," he snarled. "THEY KNEW." This had been his worst fear for the night, and it happened. The mafia were perceptive.

He slammed his mallet again on the ground, but then released it so it would dissipate into darkness. "...I kept quiet. I was hoping that the mafia would not have realized how conspicuous he had been. But I do not think this was a random strike."

He approached the strange artifact. "I do not know much about this object... but I sensed great darkness inside of it. While it is not the same darkness that the mafia possesses, it is something that I decided to research."

]]

And by research, I mean have an author who has watched a LOT of Yugioh.

[[

Diyem held up the ring. "Without its wielder, it's useless here. But early on, I noticed his behavior toward the ring, like it was behaving abnormally..."

Ever since he had transported to this strange place, the Millennium Ring had been acting conspicuously like a Millennium Eye

"...I have reason to believe... that the strange human was our Seer. We lost our Seer."

]]

For those who are not well-versed in Yugioh lore, the Millennium Eye is what the frilly rich boy Pegasus from the first season of the anime had -- the ability to read minds, more or less. If I had to take a guess, combined with the inexperience Starlight had with these games, I have reason to believe Starlight accidentally outed themselves via flavor text, and the mafia caught onto that for an easy kill. I didn't want to say anything in the hopes the mafia wouldn't notice, but... Well, I had been hoping specifically this wouldn't have happened.

I'm hoping I'm misreading the flavor text here, but if I had to take a wild guess, this might be why the mafia targeted Yami Bakura. Striking qva is still a big "why" for me, and striking Chibi makes much more sense on a game perspective, but yes. This strike makes a lot of sense considering what might have been a novice slip-up.

The best case scenario here is that I and the mafia misinterpreted what that post meant.

 

[windskull]

[["Okay. Um. Quick question here. Do... Humans evolve? Was that a normal human thing that happens? Are humans dragon type or something? Or should we just ignore all that and focus on who did it?"]]

 

[Namohysip]

[[

"He's a demon possessing a human body," Diyem said casually, waving it off. "Happens all the time. Unimportant. Not the same kind of demon we're dealing with here. Let the world he came from handle the apocalypse he's trying to cause; it's irrelevant to us."

]]

 

[DawningWinds]

[["Okay. Um. Quick question here. Do... Humans evolve? Was that a normal human thing that happens? Are humans dragon type or something? Or should we just ignore all that and focus on who did it?"]]

[["No. Humans do not evolve. And based on my analysis, we would definitely not qualify as dragon-types. We don't have elemental powers or anything, but I've seen humans get blasted with Shadow Ball and it clearly hurt, so I'd say we're most like fighting-types. In reality, though, humans can't be given a type no matter how you put it."]

 

[kyeugh]

[[ Lauchs let out a steady sight. "Unfortunately, I cannot say I'm terribly shocked. Hungry, perhaps, but not shocked. Oho." He stroked his beard in thought. "Even if the wicked ones did not predict the exact nature of Yami's role, he did flaunt repeatedly that it was powerful, and useful, and that town would regret lynching him. That's reason enough for them to make him a target, I think. I think the most likely target was yours truly, but perhaps its obviousness is why they chose not to strike me, as well as the fact that I warned our healers to stay far away from me. This development makes sense enough, I think—I'm willing to believe it elapsed this way without any switching or swapping or hijinks to be heard of." Still, he frowned. "Still, grim indeed." ]]

 

[Equitial]

[[
Jen awoke to thundering roars. He ran outside and saw... what the hell? He didn't even think that was a mafia thing. Yami just turned into dragons. Because Yami.
]]

 

[kyeugh]

quick undetailed read list:

good pile
me
dragonfree
elyvorg
equitia
sike
dawningwinds

bad pile
windskull
namo
tanuki
nonanalogue

no particular order; ofc the lines are much more blurred than Two Piles, most people are sitting somewhere near the middle; windskull could probably go back in the good pile with fairly minimal convincing

 

[elyvorg]

[[

Things had been... strange the evening before.

Tefiren had been perfectly sure that he wanted to get rid of the big blue one. The feline one hadn't seen her near Chibi, which meant she was lying about protecting him, unless one of Them had just by chance happened to stop her doing anything that night. But the chances of that were so small! How would They have even known the blue one would protect Chibi? They weren't that smart. They'd have had to just be lucky. So it just made sense to get rid of the blue one, if she was that likely to be lying, even if her protection tricks might have been useful if she wasn't.

And her words about wanting to protect everyone - once she'd finally woken up to defend herself - hadn't changed Tefiren's mind at all. That was obviously what one of Them would have said anyway, if They were lying. No reason for him to do something that made less sense just because of that.

But then, as things had reached the last few minutes of the day and the discussion had begun to get heated, Tefiren had suddenly found himself feeling bizarrely sure that the big blue one really did mean what she'd said after all. It was almost like that thought had been coming from somewhere that wasn't his head.

(Maybe it'd just been because the big blue one had been too accepting of possibly being got rid of? One of Them would have flailed, complained, been a sore loser. It wouldn't be fun otherwise. That made some sense, didn't it?)

And then the leek-duck had started talking about getting rid of someone else instead, and Tefiren had agreed with him even though getting rid of the blue one still made the most sense. He'd found himself suggesting the one in the talking slate at first (talking out of a hiding place like that was a stupid move, but then They didn't need to hide at all, did They?) - but then, when the messy Human had suggested it and the duck had agreed, Tefiren had decided instead to go for... the yellow-haired Human? The one who'd said next to nothing at all - nothing that didn't make any sense, nothing that had sounded particularly sneaky or Them-like in any way? The one that no-one else had said anything about to make her look bad, either?

But... she had been one of Them in disguise after all. Tefiren had been right.

As darkness had fallen and he'd slunk away to hide, Tefiren had begun to giggle to himself in delight. He was so good at this game! He was so good at sniffing out Them that he could do it without even trying! Even when he didn't realise it himself, even when all the sense pointed towards someone else, he could just tell where They were hiding, without having to think about it or work anything out at all!

...

...

All of that seemed to matter somewhat less the next morning, with the bizarre way the day began. Tefiren wasn't even sure what to make of it all - but then again, did it matter? Whatever bewildering tricks those had been from the white-haired Human's last hurrah, they hadn't been clever enough for him to get away from Them, and that was the only thing that counted in the end.

But, still... bizarre way of going out of not, someone else had been caught. Tefiren wasn't feeling nearly as gleeful as he had the night before, and it was annoying.

[[

A heavy mallet slammed into the ground, sending dark ripples across the featureless landscape. "They knew," he snarled. "THEY KNEW." This had been his worst fear for the night, and it happened. The mafia were perceptive.

He slammed his mallet again on the ground, but then released it so it would dissipate into darkness. "...I kept quiet. I was hoping that the mafia would not have realized how conspicuous he had been. But I do not think this was a random strike."

He approached the strange artifact. "I do not know much about this object... but I sensed great darkness inside of it. While it is not the same darkness that the mafia possesses, it is something that I decided to research."

Diyem held up the ring. "Without its wielder, it's useless here. But early on, I noticed his behavior toward the ring, like it was behaving abnormally..."

"...I have reason to believe... that the strange human was our Seer. We lost our Seer."

]]

Tefiren turned to the fiery one. "You think that Human had tricks that could sniff out Them, and They knew about it? Huh."

He thought for a moment. "But if They knew... and They didn't use any special tricks to figure it out, because there's no way They're clever enough to do that... what if They thought one of our protectors knew, too? Maybe this at least means They just used up Their trick that can catch anyone no matter what."

 

[DawningWinds]

good pile
me
dragonfree
elyvorg
equitia
sike
dawningwinds

bad pile
windskull
namo
tanuki
nonanalogue

Which pile is SparklingEspeon in?

 

[kyeugh]

Which pile is SparklingEspeon in?

oh yeah, i knew i was missing someone. uhhh tentatively good i guess? if i put espeon in the bad pile then you and sike go in there too and meh. i guess it's possible that the infodump/drop out was organized with bad intentions but i think it's most likely, esp with the context of the discord chat, that it was genuine so i'm fine putting espy there for now

 

[Sike Saner]

[[It wasn't the first time Ntairow caught herself just starting stupidly at the scene of something long after the cause was gone. A hot wave of embarrassment sent a deep blue flush across her face regardless. This was by no means a time for gawking like an idiot.

"Another of us gone..." she muttered. And an apparently powerful being to boot. She'd taken for granted that the enemy would pick off the weakest among them first.

Maybe they'd mistaken this human-who-wasn't for something weak. Or maybe...

Maybe, ultimately, no one would be strong enough to ward off the enemy.

Her legs felt a bit wobbly of a sudden. Her right hands extended, catching the trunk of Tefiren's tree in case she needed to lean. In truth, she hadn't felt truly vulnerable in a very long time. She hardly knew what to do with the feeling.

Breathe, she told herself. It took a couple of tries for her body to obey. She inhaled very deeply and let it out slow, feeling her heart relax gradually.

This wasn't over. There was no need to write herself off just yet. She'd do her damndest to survive, and she'd do everything in her power to protect the others.

She just hoped she'd choose the right one next time.]]

Okay, so. I didn't defend Yami Bakura last night (though he was on my shortlist at that point--more on that shortly). So I can't say I was definitely roleblocked this time.

I still could have been, however. If Yami Bakura was switched with the person I was defending, my protection would've landed on Yami Bakura, but the roleblocker would've nullified it in this case, allowing the mafia to take him out. And if nobody switched my target with anyone else, or my target was switched with someone other than Yami Bakura, the effect would've been the same as if nobody roleblocked me.

Anyhoo. Now that we know that the votes from Persephone were votes by a mafia member, we can reason that the people she voted for were probably innocent. That's "probably" because I imagine mafia throwing their own under the bus is not unheard of and might even be a strategically sound decision sometimes.

Starlight Aurate was one of those people, and getting us to mislynch a seer does sound like a really, really smart move for the mafia to make. See also: mislynching a doctor, and I was voted for by the same person, too.

DawningWinds was also voted for by Persephone, so there's another one for my "probably innocent" pile.

I don't have a "probably guilty" pile yet. Possibly guilty, on the other hand...

Tanuki. Shortly before the previous day ended, I called your attempt to protect yourself into question, citing the fact that I'd asked Negrek if that was possible and was told that it is not. You didn't have a chance to answer me before the day ended, but you have a chance now.

Now, what you saw in the thread, what you saw when I questioned you, was admittedly something of a knee-jerk reaction. I've had time to think about it since, and yeah, I suppose it could have been an honest mistake. Maybe you just didn't think to ask Negrek first--in all fairness, it didn't occur to me to ask the "are we playing with overdoses" question until close to the end of day 2. Or maybe you just didn't think you had time to ask and get an answer back. Maybe you were just desperately grasping for protection without thinking.

But even so. Even given that. Even given how much your actions have baffled the actual frick out of me throughout the game. I can't help but find it extra fricking weird that you would attempt a night action during the day.

What are you playing at?

 

[Tanuki]

[["Well, ain't you special," Desper said with a roll of his eyes. "City slickers'n their wearings." The dragons hadn't attacked anyone, so he holstered his iron and went to pick up the ring. "Read me a book 'bout one o' these. Turned y'invisible." He sent a smirk to Diyem. "Shoulda seen what the little'n did to his dragon." Looked valuable. If'n he needed any actual after all this, he could probably get some from it. Just needed to keep that possession'n dragons bit about it t'imself.

"What concerns me, if y'all don't mind," he tucked the ring'nto his belt, "is how he knew they knew. S'pose he's tellin' us he was some sorta seer?" He let out a frustrated whistle. "Couldn'ta told us what'e'd seen? 'Bout as dumb as a sheriff, s'I'd b'lieve him." Disgust curled his lips 'nto a scowl. A scowl that worsend as he turned to Lauchs. "Might I ask why'm in yer 'bad pile,' pardner?"

He shook his head. There were more'mportant things. "Now, Mister 'Pro-fesser," he glared t'wards Finnar. "Y'wanna 'splain t'me why the little lady saw y'at the scene o' the crime?"]]

OOC/Translation: Cool of Yami to let us know his role here, very nice. Also, ring's mine. Desper doesn't know what it does, nor do I, but dibs. I called dibs. Can't beat dibs.

And qva, no need to actually explain why you're suspicious of me here. It's just in universe Desper would be somewhat peeved. In fact, by the end of this, I'd bet my placement will only be worse...

For the important bit, I still say we gun for DawningWinds because, while lucky, it's not impossible or all that unlikely that they blocked Sike and I'd rather lose a switcher than a protector.

Finally, I have one last, very crazy theory. In the craze of last night, we had two people who we were discussing lynching because they were both very implicated in a crime and would've given us tons of info. Then, y'all decided to shoot in the dark and hit Persephone. We got a mafia, which is good. Elyv, I believe, told qva to pick someone somewhat suspicious because she was the least suspicious out of all of us.

First, it is important to note that one of the reasons we all assume qva is innocent is because the switch shenanigans made her so. Those switch shenanigans are in question now, though. So, the main thing holding her from suspicion is gone, and she agreed to not lynch one of two people who would've given us tons of info. Just so happening to hit a mafia. I know it's not that unlikely, and it was from a list of people she or someone else was suspicious of.

It still strikes me as very lucky. I don't know how many mafia there are, but four doesn't sound too high a number. I think that qva, Dawning, and Sike are mafia. Since two of them are under high scrutiny right now, they know they need to make one of them look as innocent as possible. Having qva take out one of their own would take her off our radar for the rest of the game. I could be wrong, but I think Persephone was in a similar position as Espy where she was struggling to keep up because of irl things. She could've agreed to this for the sake of not having to deal with this anymore.

Now that I think about it, how the story came about only required DawningWinds saying qva got switched, so it's even possible that Sike is innocent but aaaaaaaaaa everything is complicated. Point is, if Dawning or Sike turn out to be mafia, I think we need to consider qva a suspect.

There is no way I could've written this out in Cowboy, so just pretend Desper said this in rp. We're of comparable intelligence levels I think so it's not unbelievable he would have similar ideas, though maybe he'd have more sense than me given he's older. But yeah, I'm rambling, sorry. Probably just lightheaded from craning my neck to paint this massive target on my back.

 

[Tanuki]

fuck, I'm an idiot. He would've called Finnar "Mister 'Fesser," not "Pro-fesser," dammit.