Mewtwo turned quiet, taking several moments to consider this human. They reached out their Psychic arms--their mental reading capability was dampened in this gray plain, but let the human feel the pressure.
In the best-case scenario, this human was incompetent. She directly named Mewtwo as a possibility for a being with an ability greatly useful to the townsfolk. Fair hypothesis, maybe. And the point of loudly airing this thought, to a group which would include the Mafia who would be eager to remove such a foe? And this human, at the same time as wondering if Mewtwo was a powerful asset to town, also suggested suspicion for the same reasoning. Fascinating.
Alas, Mewtwo was beginning to realize finding an arsonist would possibly be no easier than finding a Mafia. In that case, the human Miyako and her ill-advised musings were currently being the most baffling/irritating to Mewtwo.
Well, she did it. She bit the bullet and made her doubt about Mewtwo known. And the result? Well, he hadn't violently erupted at her, as she'd expected. He merely made her the new target of his ire. (The pressure of his psychic field aggravated Nephthys, but Miyako cautioned her against retaliation; fighting was not going to help matters here, and she'd already done enough damage in trying to be helpful without the phoenix-woman trying to attack
freaking Mewtwo.) And while Miyako certainly didn't want to be on anyone's shit-list, she couldn't help but notice that he'd changed his vote. Again.
She took a few deep breaths to try to calm herself. "Look, I gave nothing away. You did that yourself by immediately going after Lusamine. You can give your reasoning about pressure or whatever, but it doesn't make sense to me why anyone would do that without knowing something. You could be forcing another innocent to reveal their ability in self-defense, and then suddenly the mafia would have a confirmed target. Surely I'm not the only one to pick up on this. I just happened to be the one who pointed it out. Now, should I have drawn attention to it? Okay, maybe not, I guess. But again, if I am as incompetent as you think, and even I managed to (possibly) identify someone with a useful ability, then why is it so hard to believe that anyone else could have seen it, too?"
"Let me also make it clear that I am not, and have not been, actively targeting you, or anyone else. I'm simply saying that, to me, the knee-jerk reaction voting is just erratic and suspicious to me. I get that you're suspicious of humans in general, really, I do (and yes, delphox is not a human, I didn't miss that). But my thoughts are not based on who you are, they're based on your actions, and right now, your actions feel needlessly accusitory."
Miyako took another moment to steady her breathing. Yeah, this was Ryosuke's game, alright. She'd just have to think like her friend and hope she's known him long enough for his reasoning skills to have rubbed off on her. "Does anyone else have any thoughts here?" She stepped back and gestured vaguely to the group at large, giving someone else time to take the spotlight.
"I don't agree with randomly voting fer folks afore they've even said anythin'. But the principle of information-gatherin' and outpacin' the Mafia is valid. What's more, Mewtwo behaved exactly like this the last time I played with 'em, an' the Mafia killed 'em straight off. They're hardly a barrel of laughs, but they ain't suspicious. Nefari, I'm less sure about. That argument was fuckin' specious an' no mistake, so she's either a deceiver, or a goddamn fool.
"You... played with Mewtwo before?" She must have missed that bit. But if this was just his style, then maybe he
wasn't guilty, just a jerk.
Think like Ryo. Consider all the angles. It would probably be annoying for the other mafia members if one of their own was purposely drawing so much attention to themself like this, as well as constantly changing their targeted vote... but in the end, so long as they all voted the same, then how many times the target changed publicly during the day didn't matter, did it?
"On the subject of Nefari... her being mafia feels unlikely to me specifically for that role claim, assuming it's true. Unless the arsonist is third party, and then our only defense would be to trust a mafia member to help take them out, while protecting our own from the rest of the mafia? Based on previous games, I suppose I could see that happening... Also, would we really have a possible firefighter role if there wasn't an arsonist present somewhere? That also feels unlikely, but again, I guess I could see it based on past games. Especially considering that there's a second role option included... sure, its in case the arsonist is caught before n-4 so that the ability isn't null, but it could also just be a pure deception, to make everyone think there's an arsonist when there really isn't. How likely would that be? Again, someone who's done this before should give their thoughts on that."
[[ Also jfc what a list! So much detail. Personally, I do appreciate that, especially the character tracker. ]]
[[ I'm going to respond to the next few slightly out of original posting order. ]]
"That's true, but a stupid game to play, don't ya think? If they're reckless enough, they'll cause far more harm than good. I think this Arsonist is playing for themself."
"Yes, an innocent-arsonist has a decent chance to just... not be able to do anything, at least not without harming one of their own. Sure, they could choose not to ever ignite once they realize, but it's kind of a shame to not actually get to use your ability if you've got one. So if there is one, I suspect they're probably either mafia or third party. I'm less sure of which of those is more likely, though."
"There's been a lot of talk about the people who've been voting being suspicious for it, but that's pretty bullshit. Drawing a bunch of attention with big drama right off the bat isn't how the mafia usually operate. If you ask me, they're probably lying pretty low. But also, no, obviously they didn't just fucking not target anyone for the hell of it. Either they weren't allowed to this night because blah blah game magic, or something stopped them or protected the target, and usually there are a billion things that can do that, so it's really not that fucking surprising nobody died."
Miyako sighed at this. The general consensus, as far as she could tell, was that she was over-reacting, which, admittedly, surprised her a bit. Okay, so maybe she'd gotten a bit too overzealous in questioning Mewtwo. "Okay, fine, I'll back off for now... I guess I jumped the gun a little bit in my haste to be actually useful to the group. Considering my stance on "targeting quiet people" and everyone else's attitude still seeing it as valid concern for suspicion, it wouldn't make sense for me to, y'know, not make an effort to try to speak up, would it?"
[[ Side note to that; tying to be active last night and today because I can be pretty sure that I won't be able to make a post after going to bed tonight due to work tomorrow, which means I'll likely be silent from bed-time until end-of-day and thus, will have no opportunity to defend myself. I
may be able to get up early to post something before work, but I know I can't guarantee that. ]]
Miyako wondered, what would ease people's minds more? Casting a no-vote now, or waiting till the end of the night? Would waiting seem too much like following the crowd? Or would casting a vote after arguing against doing so this early be seen as flip-flopping and even more suspicious? Nephthys offered no consideration to her dilemma, though perhaps that was just because Miyako's
own thoughts were so conflicted.
Thanks, you're a big
help.
Was she really
this bad at the game?
Another sigh. "...I'm going to say
no vote from me tonight. If my previous thoughts were wrong, then I feel we have little else to go by, but I refuse to shoot in the dark and potentially kill one of our own by accident without having any good reason to do so. It's just not right. If there's reason for me to vote for someone brought into light, then I'll consider doing so, but for now, I don't think we have enough to go on. Make what you will of my decision."