[INNOCENTS WIN] Grand Opening Fanfic Mafia - Game Thread

[DeliriousAbsol]

Infinite chuckled and dunked another gravy bone into his peanut butter.

"Oh yes, well said, little dinosaur," he said. "Of course people would be more inclined to 'act normal' - if that's even a legitimate term. I mean, define 'normal'?" He raised a hand to cut off an answer so he could continue on with his monologue. "Someone might be inclined to act all innocent and cute to avoid detection, but it could also go extremely the other way. Someone might decide to act all brash because, in a room where anyone could be the bad guy, the one who's blowing the obvious trumpet is going to fly under the radar because 'no one's that stupid'. Well, I've seen some real filth in my long years. Someone can act like a friend, try to get you to talk, and BAM! They're electrocuting your lights out because you looked at them funny." His breath rasped a couple of times and he dropped onto one knee to offer Cabot the peanut-butter-coated dog treat. "I'm no stranger to masks, little one. I know what I'm talking about."

 

[The Walrein]

Psyduck didn't know whether to be more baffled by the strange device Ess had pulled out earlier, which seemed to have an entire radio crammed into it somehow, or by the Scrafty's bizarre idea of what constituted "music" and "singing". ...could it be possible that the disappearences were being effected by some kind of tool, rather than some supernatural power? It would certainly be easier for this 'mafia' to just hand a weapon to their recruits rather than somehow imbue them with some sort of mystical power. Although, even if that was the case, everyine here looked like they had the ability to wield tools, so that didn't exactly rule anyone out.

As Psyduck pondered this, he continued to listen to what everyone else was saying, weighing their words carefully. Could this 'Dave' character be one of the mafia? He didn't seem like the sort of person who was good at working with others - and the mafia seemed to require carefull coordination among its members. Then again, maybe Dave was acting the way he was precisely because of that line of reasoning...

The gears in Psyduck's mind whirled furiously as her migraine intensified. Finally, she couldn't keep quiet any longer. As soon as Cabot was done talking, Psyduck emitted a loud, quacking scoff.

"From the way you people talk, you'd think that we were proposing to lynch people, instead of just jailing them! In my mind, inaction at this point would only be justified if we truly knew nothing. And while I'm sure that's the case to many of you... there's one crucial point you're overlooking," Psyduck said, giving her noggin a smug couple of taps. "Not all of this Mafia will be composed of random persons, plucked by chance from the cosmos. No, at least one of them, I'll bet, will have been selected by the mafia based on their suitability for their organization. And let's ask ourselves, who would they pick? Someone who fits in well with others, surely. Someone powerful, yet also seeming kind and wise. And how would this person behave? Not wishing to draw suspicion, they'd talk much but say little, avoiding advocating for any concrete plan. Now, I won't pretend my certainty is as 100% as implied by his name, but I'm voting for jailing Hecto. No one else here Fitz those criteria as well as he does."

OOC Reasoning: Okay, so Mafia games usually have 1/3rd of the players be Mafia, I believe. I imagine one of the four will be the recruited on the first night, so there are three currently. So the odds of Namo being Mafia are 0.25 + (0.75*odds Mafia successfully recruits them on night one). I'd say there's at least a 1/3 chance the Mafia would recruit Namohysip. They post often, are well liked, and judging from Hands of Creation, are a master of complicates schemes and secrets. I'd put the odds at 45% they'd be recruited myself. Take into account a 1/12 chance the recruitment got blocked, and that's a roughly 56% chance they are or will soon become Mafia.

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave stares at Mel. "Okay, what the fuck? Fine, I'm sorry for not babbling on with empty platitudes or telling my fucking life story in rap. I guess I missed the memo on the storytelling contest over the part where people are fucking disappearing." He throws a glance at Cabot, scratching at his scalp in agitation. "Look. Okay." He gives a stiff, almost sarcastic wave of his hand. "Hi. David Ambrose, Heywood Labs. Some ten years back I figured out how to combine human and Pokémon DNA, and then some legal bullshit happened and we had to raise the kids that came out of it. A few days ago, I watched my daughter disappear into thin air. Three of the others vanished too. Then I wake up here with you people. And..." He jerks his head towards Mia, a slight tremble entering his voice. "I don't know how the fuck she's here, because she's - I spoke at her fucking funeral. But I guess that's not any weirder than anything else in this fucking Hell-dimension. Jesus Christ, why am I even talking."

He drags his hands over his face for a moment, shaking his head. "Look," he mutters at last when he looks up. "If we're assuming the... 'mafia' can just appear to be whoever they want, which, sure, why not, nothing makes sense anyway, then we don't have fucking anything to go on right now. If we just start jailing people at random, they're probably innocent. Don't you think in the night we might be able to try to get some actual information about what's going on? I think that's a hell of a lot more helpful than guessing."

 

[Dragonfree]

((Noooo I was going to stick to past tense but I'm used to RPing in present tense))

"So, well, I say for now we don't jail someone who might be helpful, and tonight we try to gather information." Dave looks restlessly around. "God. Is there any place to get a fucking drink around here."

 

[Dragonfree]

((I DID IT AGAIN OH MY GOD))

 

[Sike Saner]

"Huh. Yeah, I guess we really don't know squat, do we?" Karo said. His eyes shifted imperceptibly toward the being currently leaning on him. "Also hi. Mind putting a little more space between me and that lizard?" Said lizard was just a wee little starter; he doubted such a thing could seriously harm him. But he didn't really care to potentially get wet for no good reason.

"Anyway, yeah. Waiting sounds good. Someone's bound to screw up sooner or later. No jail for anybody... this time."

 

[DeliriousAbsol]

"Oops!" Infinite chuckles and removes himself from Karo's flank. "I guess I just got comfortable since you remind me of a favored rock I used to shade under on a hot, desert day. No offense."

Fish gives Karo an apologetic look as he moves over to the jackal's other shoulder.

Infinite silently returns to his spot against the wall where he calls up a sofa, filling the room with a deep, reverberating noise for a moment while the item solidified. A black and white love-seat with a pile of cozy cushions in one corner. He drops onto it on his back to continue his peanut butter snack, keeping a close eye on the room's occupants.

 

[NebulaDreams]

"Hey," Ess said, staring down the peanut-butter obsessed jackal, "I'll pick whatever I want. I don't take any lip from someone who eats outta jar like that."

Ess glared at Dave, who finally started talking. As much sand seemed to be in his vag, he had a good reason for it. That Pokemorph stuff was out of his league, but he could've only imagined the confusion that came out of it. He sighed and sifted through his bag.

"But yeah," he mumbled. "No jail for now, I guess." He dug a beer bottle out of the bag and rolled it to Dave's side, either out of sympathy or

 

[NebulaDreams]

((crap, hit enter too early))
...just as an excuse to shut him up.

 

[M&F]

Mia eyeballed the Dave as he made less and less sense. She figures that "her funeral" probably means a funeral directly caused by her, but she can't quite remember what would the specific situation be, and expected that asking for clarification would get her uncomfortable stares from all the illogical ones.

She shakes her head. What does it matter? It's just either Dave, or someone pretending to be Dave.

Drawing her attention back to the conversation, something finally jumps out at her. "The Psyduck isn't making a lot of sense. Can I fight them?"

[[ooc: right, roleplaying in a hurry and probably doing it wrong in a million ways, but let's proceed onto the proper reasoning. I find that trying to pin one specific player down through statistics is a little spurious; we all have the exact same basic chances of turning out to be mafia, don't we? and trying to anticipate the recruitee is a spot of gun-jumping when they're not going to be mafia until two days' time and we'll have a better chance of nailing their pick at that time. although I get the feeling that someone who's already spent some time thinking about the process of mafia recruitment -- y'know, for other reasons? -- might be extraordinarily preoccupied with the process, and perhaps hoping to get the drop on a plausible candidate that they'd considered but discarded. all that said, this isn't quite a hard accusation -- and if anything I'd be inclined to extend a little goodwill to someone who at least appears to be actually trying to scumhunt -- but pressure makes the mafia go round, so!]

 

[M&F]

((I DID IT AGAIN OH MY GOD))

[[also: dragonfree is presently tense-]]

 

[Namohysip]

(Why you gotta play that card, Walrus...? It feels like I played myself with my own plot.)

While Hecto had listened to all that was being said, he was understandably focused on Psyduck’s accusation and the theories in the wind. (If any ooc chatter happens I’m just calling it words in the wind.)

His ears twitched back and there was, for once, a noticeable, albeit small grimace at the edges of his muzzle. “I’m sorry that you don’t trust me due to my nature, or the nature of the world I come from,” he said. “But if this mafia has the power to recruit somebody, I doubt such scheming nature would be applicable to a place such as this, where motives are different and the circumstances seem completely nonsensical.” He looked between Mia and Dave, seemingly from the same world at different times.

“Recruitment of another among us complicates things. The words on the wind suggest that this is going to be the case for one of us, almost an inevitability. I certainly hope that is not the case for me. I also certainly hope their numbers are not as large as the words in the wind suggest.” (I personally was under the impression that 25% would be the mafia, but you’re right in that the number is not known. Something like they start with 2 members, recruit a third, and that’s a quarter, or something. Unless I miscounted the participants.)

Hecto looked down. “By jailing one of ourselves now, we are at a higher risk of losing not only an innocent, but then allowing them to select someone new altogether. The disadvantage would be... detrimental, and—“

The spinning, rainbow wheel above Ess’ head had disappeared, and he had seemingly unfrozen from time to express his sympathies toward Dave. The numbers were already starting to add up for no jail. Hecto lowered his head I bet thought. Indeed, the recruitment variable complicated things. If they chose poorly, they would lose three innocents in one night, and the perpetrators would gain one. If they did nothing, however... they would still be helpless. Was this not merely delaying the inevitable? Or was this debate the true benefit?

“I hope that this discussion was enough information for any sort of powerful ally to glean who to protect, or detect, or... perhaps do anything.” Hecto’s ears folded back. “I hesitate to Cast my vote. I must hear more from the others. I fear that once I make a decision, I may not be able to revise before nightfall (mostly because I don’t know myself yet) and—“

Next, the rainbow wheel of time’s stillness moved away from Mia, and Hecto was beginning to get annoyed at how quickly he seemed to be getting interrupted. He looked above his head and almost, but botbauite, gasped as he saw a rainbow wheel above his head, too. He couldn’t wait to leave this strange reality.

With the votes getting scattered, Hecto cleared his throat. “I suppose it would do no good to antagonize anybody for now. I shall cast my vote soon, if only because I cannot determine whether I can revise later if I’m convinced otherwise...”

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave reached out for the bottle automatically, then hesitated. He gave the Scrafty a suspicious squint for a moment. Then he shrugged and took it, digging in his pocket for a bottle opener. "Thanks."

Before taking a swig of the bottle, he added, "If I drop dead, jail him."

 

[Namohysip]

Hecto’s ears perked up worriedly. “Did you not just put a target on your back?” he told Dave. “If you disappear next, and Ess is innocent, that could misdirect everyone. The numbers aren’t in your favor to correctly assume that Ess is... mrm...” But did they really know the numbers? He sighed. There was so little to go by.

“I vote for no jail tonight, but we cannot keep this up for long.”

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave's lips curled into the slightest of smiles as Mia proposed fighting the Psyduck. "No, Mia, uh, better not. Yeah, the Psyduck's making up like a dozen significant figures out of thin air, but remember how we've talked about how attacking people will get you put in jail? That, but more so." Then, he seemed to catch himself, looking over at her with a brief wince. "Ugh. What the fuck." He paused, taking another sip from the bottle.

At the doglike creature's comment, he rolled his eyes. "I mean, I was thinking more 'if I start seizing and vomiting black sludge when I drink this'. If I do a vanishing act in the night it's probably not the fucking beer, you know?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr turns to Hecto. "Hang on. If they tried recruiting one of us and got stopped in their tracks, then yeah, they'd get to try again. But if they actually made contact and then their target got locked up by one of us, then they're done with that. We'd prob'ly go mad trying to figure out who before it happens though. We got enough to worry about as is."

 

[Dragonfree]

"But I agree tomorrow we should try to actually take a stab at who's behind this with the information we've got. Can't afford to stall forever while we're picked off."

 

[Virgil134]

Cabot hesitantly looked at the 'treat' offered to him, giving a disgusted grimace as some of peanut butter dropped onto the floor. The Cranidos leaned back and fumbled for words, unsure how to even respond to Infinite. As he thought of what to say, he heard Dave finally tell his story, the part about losing his daughter and three others confirming his earlier suspicions. Was that why Dave was acting like this?

Clearly Infinite didn’t have the patience for Cabot’s musings, considering the strange creature walked back towards the wall and materialized furniture seemingly out of thin air. The Cranidos frowned, before deciding he at least had to say something back to him.

“I mean I guess someone could act that way… but… you make it sound like something common. Like everyone’s just out to get each other. And that’s not true! Yeah there’s some bad people out there, but most are good and willing to help each other if needed. Even if Dave was acting kinda mean, I don’t think he’s putting up some sort of act. Especially not something crazy like what you’re saying!”

Cabot looked around and noticed most people had opted to follow his lead and voted not to jail somebody. He noticed Ess offering Dave some sort of drink and wondered if perhaps all the man needed was a friend. Deciding it would be best to approach Dave before he could get into another argument with someone, Cabot walked up to him.

“Hey, uh… I didn’t really understand everything you were saying or what 'deeanay' is exactly, but I’m sorry to hear you lost your children.”

 

[Umbramatic]

GM Notice: this post was edited. The original post appears below.

"Hmmm..." Said Loki. "The majority seems to be voting no jail tonight and I feel so too since that's a good way to force their hands... But if we feel like we have to jail someone and that Dave guy looks suspicious."

This is what the post was modified to:

"Hmmm..." Said Loki. "The majority seems to be voting no jail tonight since that's a good way to force their hands... But I feel like we have to jail someone and that Dave guy looks suspicious."

It was then reverted to the original.

 

[Chibi Pika]

((OOC: hnnng I am gonna be so mad (but also laugh SO hard) if Cabot turns out to be mafia))