[INNOCENTS WIN] Grand Opening Fanfic Mafia - Game Thread

[Dragonfree]

Dave folds his arms in exasperation. "Well, there's not much to say for myself when there's no real argument, is there? Near as I can tell, most everyone wanting to jail me wants it for half-assed reasons, just to do something, or with some vague fucking one-sentence handwave about how suspicious I am. Then there was Ditto girl with that whole argument, which I think I already said everything I want to say about. I can't promise I'm the most useful person to keep around here, and in fact I'm probably not, but yes, I'm useful. So can we not throw me in jail at random based on the opinions of people like..." He waves his hand at Loki. "That fucking thing, who's been wearing this smug grin since we started and said all of like three sentences and just switched to wanting to jail me for no fucking reason whatsoever?"

 

[M&F]

For better or for worse, something finally felt familiar to Mia about this strange situation -- everyone being angry at Dave for making sense and telling the truth. Even if this might not be the real Dave, the thing to be done about the problem was the same one as always.

"No one's hurting Dave while I'm around." She made her point by standing by him and raising an arm/scythe, half protectively, half about ready to slash someone.

[[ooc: right, so much for pressure; I hatehatehate abstaining in general, but was just thinking that, given that we got one night that we'll only pay for in installments, it's not as much of a loss for the time being. also, making this choice may actually traumatize dave harder]]

 

[Namohysip]

With that, six were in favor of no vote again, and only five in favor of jailing Dave. And Hecto was still unsure. If he switched his vote, he could outright decide this. Or anybody could switch their vote. The very idea of the outcome swaying in a teetering balance due to just a single vote made his stomach turn.

Stuck, Hecto stood paralyzed with inaction. His vote was still to not jail anybody, yet he looked to Psyduck. “I understand you are suspicious of me, or worried for my future. But for tonight, now that the options have narrowed, will you revise your vote to one of the two?”

 

[The Walrein]

"I don't feel right about sitting like ducks, I guess."

"Ahem," Psyduck said, shooting a glare at Lachlan.

Later, as everyone continued to discuss the matter of Dave, Psyduck sat in silent contemplation, although occasionally suddenly whirling around to make sure that Mia wasn't about to decapitate her from behind - an action which seemed to make her dizzier and dizzier each time it happened, with deleterious effects on the intensity of her headache. Finally, when Hecto approached her for a decision, Psyduck pretended like she was just brushing something off her head rather than clutching in agony and produced the smuggest expression her beak was capable of.

"Oh, so I see you've all finally come to your senses and have decided to call upon my expert decision-making skills to resolve this matter for you. Very well, then! Let's look at the facts: First, this 'Dave' human, as far as I can tell, is primarily guilty of being the first person to try to incriminate someone here, and secondly, guilty of being very defensive when facing the possibility of being thrown in jail. As for the second fact, I believe that an innocent person and a guilty person would both tend to get rather prickly when faced with the imminent possibility of imprisonment, so I'll allot this fact zero evidential power. And the implications of the first fact - well, I would describe them all in great detail to you, yet I fear our time is running short, so I'll spare myself the effort of simplifying them to a level you could understand. " Psyduck had no idea what to make of Dave's initial accusation. "Now we must apply my previous test: Is Dave a person whom the Mafia would want to recruit? They seem to have quite a few people willing to stand up for them, it's true... but also several enemies, apparently, and I'm not sure that such a fact would've escaped the eyes - or other senses they may possess - of the mafia recruiters. Given these facts alone, the decision would seem difficult to make. Yet there's one other piece of evidence we must take into consideration - that he's currently the only person doing anything to prevent that crazed half-scyther woman from chopping me in twain. So I vote to not jail him."

OOC: I think I made a few bad assumptions earlier. I was guessing that there wouldn't be many roles involved since this is I think supposed to be a beginner's game, in which case I think the standard logic is to try to eliminate someone on day one. And also I guess trying to jail a recruitee might not be as helpful as it seemed earlier since we wouldn't actually learn whether or not they were the recruitee. That said, I think I still would've voted to jail Namo had the votes swung that way.

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave stared at Mia, tensing as she stood up to protect him. "Mia, that's - you shouldn't -"

But when no one seemed to take her up on the challenge, he relaxed slightly, sinking back in his chair. His gaze lingered hard on Mia, though.

 

[Namohysip]

Hecto watched the vote fall, though he still seemed concerned that Psyduck still had an eye out against him. He gave an apologetic nod to Loki and said, “That places no-jail two votes ahead. Even if I switched, it would be a tie. I imagine we would be left with flipping a coin. Somehow, that feels... even less favorable. Someone else could just as easily switch...” Hecto nodded. “My vote remains the same: we shall not jail anybody tonight.”

 

[The Walrein]

((Sorry Namohysip. Consider it a compliment to your general aura of popularity and formidableness))

 

[Chibi Pika]

"Mkay, so... looks like we're not jailing Dave. Alright. We damn well better have something to work with tomorrow."

 

[NonAnalogue]

"This feels like a mistake." Mel let out a breath. "But I don't wanna jail someone who's innocent either."

"Guess we'll have to hope that the majority made the right call, boss," said Repeat.

 

[Negrek]

It's no surprise that with so many characters from different timelines crammed together the discussion rapidly gets out of hand. The day could hardly be called calm: sick beats are laid, large quantities of peanut butter are consumed, Dave opens up about his past, and at least five people decide on the spot to adopt Cabot.

What about the reason they convened in the first place, though? How were they going to stop the Mafia? It soon became clear that no one had any substantial information, or at least none that they were willing to share. Everyone had their own personal suspects, whether humans or legendary pokémon or maybe just jerks, but despite last-minute changes of heart and a growing desire to jail someone in hopes of getting out ahead of their mafia foes, in the end no particular candidate can attract a majority of votes. At last, with Psyduck's wincing decision to change her vote, the outcome is clear: the majority believe that would be better to jail no one than to risk locking up an innocent, perhaps even an innocent with abilities crucial to their cause.

While most of the group dispersed, a handful lingered on, watching the strange light seep away from the interdimensional space. Hecto stood watching, lost in thought, while Melanie and Repeat conversed quietly. It was good not to jail an innocent, yes, but how long could this go on? Surely the Mafia would show now similar mercy.

Day One is over. This is how the final vote stands:

Abstain - 7 (Virgil134, Dragonfree, Sike Saner, NebulaDreams, Namohysip, The Walrein, M&F)
Dave - 5 (NonAnalogue, DeliriousAbsol, qva, Umbramatic, Chibi Pika)

No one has been jailed. Night One begins now. You have forty-eight hours to submit night actions.

 

[Negrek]

At first, all seems normal when the group reconvenes the following morning. With as many of them as there are, a single absence is hard to spot. Ess leading off with another rap is sufficient distraction that, at least for a while, many people don't even remember why they've gathered. It's not until Hecto finally gets things settled down and organizes a roll call that they discover an absence: Infinite has gone missing.

There aren't exactly a lot of places to hide in this interdimensional confluence. It's mostly empty space, featureless save for fleeting hints of texture, swirling colors that suggest one or another of the worlds that terminate here. Still, the group splits up to search, hoping above all that Infinite's simply overslept or hared off on some personal crusade elsewhere. Maybe they've gotten lucky and the Mafia's left them alone for another night. They can keep telling themselves that up until Karo, following his nose, finally discovers incontrovertible evidence that jackal's been disapeared: Fish the sobble wanders in disconsolate circles, crying for his friend and receiving no reply.

Infinite (DeliriousAbsol) has been eliminated. He was Innocent.

Seventy-two hours for discussion.

 

[Namohysip]

Hecto’s ears were pressed hard against his head at the sight of Fish circling around. While he was typically one to not interfere, the very fact that he was here was already evidence that he has gone against his personal policy. So, interfere he did again, quietly approaching Fish to hold out a paw. “Come. You may rest on me for now,” he offered. The Legendary Pokemon bowed to the Sobble—to some, the sight of a Legend bowing to anything would be foreign, perhaps even blasphemous—but Hecto paid it no mind. Someone needed comfort, and that was more important.

“It appears that Infinite has been taken from us,” Hecto confirmed to the others.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr sinks into a chair, her expression grim. "I... shit, I gotta admit I was actually suspicious of him yesterday... guess I was flat wrong, huh." She runs a hand down her face. "Ugh, I did not get nearly enough sleep to be dealing with this crap."

((OOC: that's my way of saying I'm heading to bed early, just wanted to make a quick post before the train got rolling. :P))

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave stared at the tiny chameleon as it wailed in distress. "Well, shit," he muttered. "I was suspicious of him too. What the fuck."

He took a deep breath. "Okay. Well, we're definitely jailing someone today, and I spent some time thinking about this in the night, since I didn't get a lot of time to yesterday. If it wasn't him, my best guess is that thing." He gestured towards Loki. "They're a fucking shapeshifting legendary that could probably easily pull off this sort of shit, but also, they really didn't talk all that much yesterday, like they just wanted to fly under the radar and avoid drawing attention, and their vote to jail me was pretty opportunistic and based on jack shit, just going with the flow when everyone else was ragging on me. I think that's worth a pretty hard side-eye. My other best guess was Infinite, but so much for that." He folded his arms, scowling.

"So those were the real solid suspects I picked out. Next to that, Karo was also kinda going with the flow yesterday, and the Psyduck sort of seemed to be trying to help but didn't always make a lot of sense; none of that's necessarily suspicious and maybe it's just that this isn't exactly a situation any of us were well prepared for, but it's the best I got. As far as who's probably not suspect, I don't think Mel's it. She went after me for some pretty bullshit reasons, but she probably meant it. Hecto's indecision and his hand-wringing about whether I was putting a target on my back seemed pretty genuine. And... I know Mia and it's not her." He winced a little. "That's all I got. I was hoping to be able to help more than that, but no."

((Actual OOC reasons for feeling pretty good about Mia: I liked M&F's effort to put pressure on Psyduck and the OOC reasoning behind it seemed genuine, plus stepping up to tiebreak defending Dave rather than getting an innocent killed seems a pretty bold, risky move for mafia; it would've been so easily justifiable to just vote him on the basis that jailing someone was better than no one, and I highly doubt she would've been coming under fire for it today if she had, when others had much more suspicious votes for Dave. That one's predicated on me being innocent, obviously, so I don't expect you all to take me at my word there.))

 

[Virgil134]

Cabot looked at Fish and felt his heart sank at seeing the Sobble wander in circles and cry for his friend. It was true that Infinite was acting a little mean to him earlier, but that didn't mean he deserved to be taken by the Mafia! What were they to do now? Just accusing people who voted to imprison Dave seemed a bit too simple, and given that Infinite voted for Dave as well, it might very well get someone innocent caught. If they were gonna beat the Mafia, they would need to know more.

"Maybe instead of saying who we think is guilty right now, we could first talk to each other a bit more? I mean the day has only just started, and there's still a lot we don't know," Cabot murmured, before looking at Loki, Lachlan, and Mia. "Since you guys have talked the least out of everyone, maybe you could start by telling a bit more about yourselves and if you saw anything last night?"

 

[NonAnalogue]

There were certain things that would always be true, no matter where in the infinite expanse of universes one was. For example, thanks to a certain stroke of coincidence, water was always wet, except for the times when it wasn't.

Weird, but true.

Another such fact was that no matter what else was going on, Mel couldn't bear to see a Pokemon in pain. She knelt next to the Sobble, which was currently living up to its name, and tried to soothe it, but she had no luck.

This might have partially been because, while she tried, Mel's mouth was also running on its own. "Infinite was one of the people who voted for Dave," she said, not seeming to realize she was speaking out loud. "So at first glance it might make sense to assume that Dave is one of the Mafia, and that this was revenge."

"You could even make the case that going after us, since we were the first to vote for him, would have made it too obvious right off the bat," Repeat said.

"Right," said Mel. "So they went after someone who still voted for Dave but wasn't the first one out of the gate. But."

"But?"

"But that would be a really obvious move in itself. Taking someone who voted for Dave out of revenge? We'd catch on quick. But it'd be less obvious if the Mafia also voted for Dave and then took one of the other people who did."

"So, boss," Repeat said after a moment, "you're saying that someone who voted for Dave is one of the Mafia?"

Mel shrugged helplessly. "Dunno. Can't rule it out. But can't say for sure that they are, either. After all, there's the idea that being too aggressive right from the beginning could get them marked as a Mafia."

"Mm." Repeat nodded, inasmuch as a face with pseudopods could nod. It was really more of a full-body vertical realignment. "Plus, Infinite being taken could be completely unrelated."

"Or it could be, like, a triple-blind. Or a four-blind or something. Either way." Mel stood up. "I think I'm with Dave and Cabot on this one. I want to hear more testimony. Especially from the people who haven't said much yet."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr stumbles into the room, rubbing her eyes. “Legit wasn’t expecting you guys to let me sleep. Allllright, what were we doing, calling out suspects or some crap like that?”

((I’m not remotely talented enough to strategy while in-character so here goes~

I went back and forth on whether or not I was suspicious of Mia practically all day, but leaned somewhat toward her being genuine toward the end, though I couldn’t really articulate why. Dragonfree summed it up pretty well I think, given that vouching for Dave was both risky and would not benefit the Mafia in any way, unless of course, if Dave is Mafia. Therefore, I feel pretty confident in saying: if Dave is not Mafia, Mia is unlikely to be as well. And vice versa. Some additional evidence in favor of one or the other would be very useful right now.

Lachlan also mostly strikes me as genuine (mostly thanks to the side comments qva has made, haha) but also seemed desperate for more info, in a way that doesn’t feel Mafia-ish. (Then again, could also have been trying to flush out the characters with special abilities?)

Cabot might be a cinnamon bun too pure, but Virgil has also struck me as genuine thus far. And only about 20% of that is thank to Cabot. :V

Mel, out of everyone, was most adamantly in favor of jailing someone on Day 1. I don't think I’ve played enough to know what that means, though.

Characters I’m leery of at this point include Psyduck and Hecto. Walrein played a pretty good distraction game, in a way that wouldn’t seem suspicious thanks to his reputation for writing humor. Hecto feels genuine, but in a trying-very-hard kind of way that makes me anxious. However, because of the fact that Psyduck tried to make a case for Hecto as potential Mafia recruit candidate, I feel that if one of them is guilty, then the other is likely innocent. (Also Hecto was anxiously awaiting Psyduck’s input in a way that wouldn’t make sense if they were both guilty. Could be an act, sure, but that’d be a really hard sell that could easily backfire.)

Loki, Karo, and Ess have all either not posted a lot, or have exclusively posted in-character, without a lot of theorymongering. Which could be a way to fly under the radar, but could equally be genuine. After all, I was way off in suspecting Infinite. But given the numbers, one of them is probably Mafia, and narrowing it down would be nice.

And, of course, I’m anxious as hell about the imminent recruitment (most likely) going through tonight, but any attempts to theorize about it just give me a headache.))

 

[Umbramatic]

-to Cabot- "I can honestly say I didn't see anything involving Infinite last night. I'm being honest. Really."

 

[Virgil134]

Cabot tilted his head. "Uh... okay then, but can you at least tell a bit more about who you are? I mean you look like the same sort of Legendary as Hecto, but at the same time you can take on this shape that he can't and you never said anything about your world or how you got here."

 

[Sike Saner]

Karo glanced at Fish again. More than glanced, actually, his eyes lingering on the sobble for a beat longer than intended. Poor little squirt.

Man, he thought. When I told Infinite to maybe give me a little space, I didn't mean all the space.

He turned his gaze away from the sobble, wishing he were better at consoling people. "You know," he spoke up, "I think there's something that maybe we oughta consider. We know these guys do their thing at night, right. But that doesn't mean they're the only ones.

"Some of us have been sleeping. Some of us. The rest? Might just be trying to get the drop on the bad guys during the wee hours. Catch 'em in the act. Or at least figure a few things out in the process.

"What I'm getting at is, maybe we shouldn't oughta jump to conclusions about people who don't have a whole lot to show so far. Maybe some of us are still looking."