[MAFIA WIN] Second Anniversary Fanfic Mafia - Game Thread

[Namohysip]

Alexander was practically drooling. He kept it together. Already they were going against each other, just like he had hoped to see when first learning about this game. This mistrust, this suspicion, this general insinuation that someone could be this Mafia with barely any evidence. It was beautiful to feel.

Ngh, he had to focus. The pleasures of misery could wait for when he was free of this realm again. Victory was what mattered.

Unfortunately, Alexander himself also did not really know who he could properly place any suspicions toward. No information. Nobody was coming forward with information, and he certainly could relate to why.

But then he scowled at Jesse after his long, long speech was completed, droning on and on and on...

Still. It was impressive. And it was useful. It reminded him of his assistant back home, in a way. Just with a strange accent.

"Hmph. I'll have you know, I did not officially cast my vote one way or the other just yet," he said. "Perhaps you are just assuming because of my silence. Allow me to explain: I lead a great many people back where I hail. I do not take any decision lightly. I calculate every option carefully and only when I am confident in an action do I make one... unless, of course, the situation calls for immediate action."

He closed his eyes, humming.

"But I suppose you've forced my hand. Yes. For the time being, I vote to eliminate nobody today." He opened his eyes. "We simply do not have enough information. Now, if we got more, that could change..."

He drifted over to Jesse's chalkboard for a while, inspecting the notes, humming again. Being near the Hydreigon gave off a strange, cold air.

"Tell me, Jesse," he said. "How beneficial do you think these thorough notes are? Because I've been wondering something. Yes, it will help the town track it all... but what if you make an error?" His dark eyes practically bored into Jesse's forehead. "One small error, and the town, which perhaps shall become reliant on your information, will be thrown off the scent. Meanwhile, the Mafia, with their greater knowledge of one another and, therefore, who may truly be telling the truth... is getting the upper hand. As they will see the error. And nobody among the innocents will. You are constructing yourself into a flimsy support beam for all around you. And from the way you carry yourself, I do wonder if that's a habit...

"Perhaps you should consider... the impact of such detailed notes. After all, if the town can see the patterns of the Mafia, so will the Mafia themselves. And they may use the very tool you have crafted to refine their own camouflage."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Jesse scowled. In his fist, the stick of chalk snapped into pieces.

"So if I make an error, perhaps you oughta correct me, like I fuckin' asked. Stenography is an asset to anyone, same as any information. Issue with a game like this is asymmetry of information. Mafia already know exactly what they're doin'. Town gains more'n Mafia does from this, partner."

 

[Namohysip]

Alexander shared his glare. "Then perhaps I shall," he said, like it was a challenge. "I expect all of you to contribute to the errata as well, then. Perhaps others can share this... board, too." He gestured vaguely toward the contraption before drifting away. "I currently have nothing more to add. Your notes are... adequate."

It seemed the Hydreigon was not one for compliments.

 

[Flyg0n]

[[So there's two options. Mafia did try to kill someone but failed. Or mafia killed no one. The former may be more likely.

The real question is... Who here might have seemed the most surprised no one died... If an attempt was truly unsuccessful...

Do we even know how many mafia there are? Is it an even split this go?

I would be a little sus of Mewtwo but maybe that's too obvious. Maybe Alexander. The first words on his post were "interesting" but that's not much to go on."

 

[Namohysip]

Maybe Alexander. The first words on his post were "interesting" but that's not much to go on."

Squinting, the Hydreigon leaned in. "Of course it's interesting. For the very reasons you just listed. Something unexpected happened. Either the Mafia failed on their very first strike, or they are intentionally withholding an attack to confuse us. It would be expected that we'd be one down."

Alexander huffed out a plume of darkness. "And no. There is certainly no way that it is an even split. Otherwise, they would be able to immediately coordinate themselves to eliminate us one by one during daytime votes. Typically a quarter of the participants are Mafia aligned. Perhaps slightly more, but I doubt any less unless they're truly powerful individually..." He glanced at the many alive individuals. "I have my doubts they are that strong if they failed on the first strike, or felt they could afford to skip a night. So if we go by a quarter or more, there are perhaps five to six Mafia total."

 

[Dragonfree]

He flicked a couple digits at Dave.

"Y'wouldn't happen to have used an ability last night, would ya, partner?"

Dave let out a frustrated sigh. “That’s more complicated to answer than you might think, but I’m guessing for the purposes of whatever detection power you’re insinuating you’ve got, the answer is yes.”

Jesse’d filled an entire blackboard with tables and notes on literally everything anyone had said and he wished he were fucking surprised. Leave it to that guy to intensely log and scrutinize every passing thought ever voiced or unvoiced by anyone and then judge you for it. The psychic surveillance state might be useful, in an artificial game where there’s no point to anything but rooting out the arbitrary bad guys, but that didn’t make it any less insufferable.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Jesse kept grinning. "And did it work?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Lexx raised an eyebrow at the Delphox's blackboard. Well, that sure was a lot of effort to write down a lot of things they all already knew. They'd all been there when those things had been said, hadn't they? Then again, he supposed, not everyone was the sort to just memorize it as it came.

If anyone wants to speculate about what a person with this or that or the other ability might wanna do t'help Town, y'can be sure I'll be payin' attention.

Lexx grinned. "Well, I hardly think you need me to tell you that anyone who can pull any kind of surveillance in this place is gonna be worth their weight in gold. Shame I couldn't bring my computer here... Anyway, if anyone here can do any sort of spying, it's pretty obvious that they should just keep quiet and do their thing. If we let 'em, they'll crack this case wide open. Easy." He folded his arms behind his head.

"But that's pretty obvious. If you want my honest opinion? Anyone with a swap is underrated as heck in these games. There could be up to two of them, and they've been the cause of pretty much all the unexpected results in every game. They've even used their power to kill." That was how Number Nine had been axed, after all. "Sure, they can't predict if they'll hurt or help their own side, least not at first. But anything that throws a wrench in the mafia's plans is bound to be useful. And since they're not as tantalizing a target as a spy or a protector, they tend to not get targeted by the mafia much after revealing themselves. Once they come clean, they can also clear up any discrepancies in info-gathering. Like if someone tried to spy on one target, but found themselves watching another target instead. That sort of thing."

"Also, think about the fact that there's a pretty decent chance that those 'psychic marks' won't land on the person the arsonist intended to put 'em on. They could even wind up putting a mark on themselves. That'd be fun."

 

[DeliriousAbsol]

((I'm going to abstain from voting this day as I've got a lot of reading here to catch up on! I'll skim over it asap!))

 

[Dragonfree]

Jesse kept grinning. "And did it work?"

Dave narrowed his eyes at him. “It sounds like what you’re getting at is that you were obstructing me”—of course he was, the dickhead—“but it’s not really the sort of thing that can just not work.”

 

[elyvorg]

Tefiren listened with interest as the tall fiery fox laid out everything that had happened so far. He was making a lot of sense, more than most of the people here, and he was paying so much attention to every little possible clue! That was exactly how to play the game! (...even if somehow he didn't seem nearly as excited about it as he should be.) That was the sort of thing that would help them win - assuming he was on everyone's side, which this was making Tefiren think for now that he probably was.

"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."

"The small fox is a huge fool. I'm sure of that." Tefiren glared at the Pokémon in question, pouting, not knowing why he was so sure that this was the same deal as that stupid white-coat Human from the last game. But he was, and he was good at this game, so he was going to listen to these thoughts that came out of nowhere, because they were obviously all his. Where else could they have come from? Ridiculous.

"You say the think-talky one has acted like this in another game, and he was innocent then? Hm. I thought it might be strange that he was accusing so many people for so little reason, but... in my last game, he - or another thinky sort of person who felt like him - was Mafia, and he did the opposite of this on the first day. He didn't want to get rid of anyone. So maybe you're right that this is him being innocent in a weird way, just like the small fox.

"If I believe you about the think-talky one, you should believe me about the other fox. We're both good at this game! We should listen to each other. At least until - if - something makes one of us look suspicious."


Elsewhere in the conversation, some of the others were talking more about the person who could put psychic marks - or some kind of marks, or set fires, or something? - on people to catch them all at once later. He wasn't sure how he knew that that was what everyone was talking about with this strange word, "arsonist", but he did, and he knew he was right because he always was. Except then some of them were wondering if this "arsonist" might be on the side of everyone, or on the side of the Mafia?

"That doesn't make sense. If the ar - Arsonist? was on our side, they'd be way too likely to get rid of some of us while trying to help us get rid of the Mafia. They can't undo their marks if they change their mind about wanting to get rid of someone, right? It'd be a stupid power for someone on our side to have. The best way to help our side by getting rid of people who might be Mafia in the night is to just do it." His eyes gleamed. "And I'd know! I won the last game all by myself by doing that!"

And now he was back in this new game, ready to do it all over again in a whole new and exciting way. This was the best outcome. This was exactly what he'd wanted when he'd ended the last game like that.

"I don't think the Arsonist is a Mafia either. Imagine if They... they could only catch us all in such a slow way as that?" He giggled. "Pathetic! They wouldn't be that bad at this game; that'd just be boring. And I don't think the Mafia could have a person who catches someone directly and an Arsonist, either. That'd be too good. There's no way they're that good.

"I think the Arsonist must be someone who's playing for themselves! Think about how big this game is, how many people are in it! Wouldn't it be interesting if there was someone who wasn't on either side, who wanted to win all for themselves by getting rid of everyone?"

Huh. That seemed like a pretty fun way to play the game, really. Tefiren almost wished he'd thought of that himself. Almost, but not quite, because everything was fine the way things were and he was going to win this game again, as usual. And anyway, this Arsonist had already been tripped up at the first chase, now that everyone already knew they were here and would be watching out for them! Not like Tefiren. His way was better. Much better.

"Maybe what the dark dragon meant to say was that we wouldn't see that this Arsonist wasn't on our side if they got eliminated. The red and green flashes this place does when somebody gets caught only tell us Mafia and not-Mafia, right? Someone out for themselves would probably look like a not-Mafia, and then we'd never know we just got rid of someone who's still an enemy."

He glanced at the many alive individuals. "I have my doubts they are that strong if they failed on the first strike, or felt they could afford to skip a night."

Tefiren peered at the dark dragon as he said something like this for the not-first time. The Human with the big stick had been saying something like that, too.

"No! They didn't skip a night! There's no way They would skip out on trying to catch one of us. The whole point of the game is that They try to catch us all. That's how it works. They may be stupid, but they're not that stupid. They definitely tried." He paused, shaking his crest leaves. "The... the Mafia, I mean. Yes." It wasn't Them in this game. That was obvious. He needed to stop forgetting that.

"It's just like the big dark bird said!" [[Altair, aka Inkedust in OOC]] "We all have so many tricks to stop the Mafia in their tracks. It's only sensible to think that one of us might have managed to do so. It's not even really luck - it's just that the, the Mafia are all such silly fools to think they could catch us so easily. We're so good at this game!"

Tefiren was the best at it, of course, but he resisted the urge to say that, because that wouldn't be helpful. Would it? It'd probably just make the Mafia go for him because they'd be so scared of how good he was at this. (Ha! As if they'd stand a chance of catching him even if they tried. Nobody could catch Tefiren, not ever. No way.)

...Tefiren concluded that he would not in fact tell anyone that he was the best at this game. Even though he was.

Though he was beginning to pick up on at least a few others here who seemed to know what they were doing. That conversation between the tall fox and the messy Human about their tricks was one he was paying eager attention to.

"But that's pretty obvious. If you want my honest opinion? Anyone with a swap is underrated as heck in these games. There could be up to two of them, and they've been the cause of pretty much all the unexpected results in every game. They've even used their power to kill." That was how Number Nine had been axed, after all. "Sure, they can't predict if they'll hurt or help their own side, least not at first. But anything that throws a wrench in the mafia's plans is bound to be useful. And since they're not as tantalizing a target as a spy or a protector, they tend to not get targeted by the mafia much after revealing themselves. Once they come clean, they can also clear up any discrepancies in info-gathering. Like if someone tried to spy on one target, but found themselves watching another target instead. That sort of thing."

"Also, think about the fact that there's a pretty decent chance that those 'psychic marks' won't land on the person the arsonist intended to put 'em on. They could even wind up putting a mark on themselves. That'd be fun."

"Exactly!" Tefiren butted in fervently as soon as he heard the fun Human saying this. "Swapping is a clever trick that helps us and confuses the Mafia! It doesn't make any sense for someone with swapping to go and get rid of themselves when they know they're not Mafia just because they don't think they're very useful to us, does it?!"

[[Don't mind him, he's still grumpy about Professor Finnar's behaviour in the last game.]]

 

[Chibi Pika]

"The small fox is a huge fool. I'm sure of that." Tefiren glared at the Pokémon in question, pouting, not knowing why he was so sure that this was the same deal as that stupid white-coat Human from the last game. But he was, and he was good at this game, so he was going to listen to these thoughts that came out of nowhere, because they were obviously all his. Where else could they have come from? Ridiculous.

 

[Chibi Pika]

[[Broken link, let's try again]]

"The small fox is a huge fool. I'm sure of that." Tefiren glared at the Pokémon in question, pouting, not knowing why he was so sure that this was the same deal as that stupid white-coat Human from the last game. But he was, and he was good at this game, so he was going to listen to these thoughts that came out of nowhere, because they were obviously all his. Where else could they have come from? Ridiculous.

 

[IFBench]

"I did nothing last night except try to sleep. I might have even been able to, too, if it wasn't for this asshole," Arctozolt said, glaring at its tail.

I was perfectly still! YOU were the one whining because you were hungry!

 

[windskull]

Lexx tilted his head with a bit of a crooked grin. "Suppose I can't argue with that, yeah. But I think it's worth pointing out that--if I'm reading these logs correctly--it was the innocent players who pushed the hardest for not voting anyone on the first day in that game. To the point that one of them got targeted at night by one of his own teammates as punishment." Experiment Number Nine had been in one of these games--now that sure was something.

"Anyway, seems like I've got a bit of a reputation here without realizing." Lexx shrugged heavily. "What can I say? These games have had a lot of protectors and swappers and blockers. It's not that hard to believe that the mafia misfired. Gives us another night to gather more information, the way I see it." His gaze darkened somewhat. "We're gonna need that extra time if we want to find that arsonist."

Kyros paused, skimming over the logs again, and grit his teeth. He really should spend more time looking carefully at those logs before he made statements like that. "You make a fair point, but..." But still, there was some niggling feeling in the back of his head that the no-lynch had been exactly what the mafia wanted last time, for one reason or another.

He shook his head, pushing away the thoughts. "I think you're right to be concerned about this arsonist, though. There's all sorts of ways that could go pear-shaped. If there's someone that can move others around...

"Then there's the issue of today's lack of a kill. There are plenty of reasons it happened, and while I don't think anyone should reveal their actions - not yet at least - I think we should consider as many possibilities as possible. The simplest answer is that the killer targeted someone who was protected, or otherwise unkillable. Someone blocking the killer is also a possibility... As is someone moving the killer's target to someone that was protected. Looking at these logs, something like that has happened before.

"It's also possible that they didn't try to kill anyone. But... That seems unlikely. Possible. It's a risky gambit that's been used before. But not likely."

[[About to head to work. Will try to make some smaller posts throughout the day.]]

 

[Chibi Pika]

Kyros paused, skimming over the logs again, and grit his teeth. He really should spend more time looking carefully at those logs before he made statements like that. "You make a fair point, but..." But still, there was some niggling feeling in the back of his head that the no-lynch had been exactly what the mafia wanted last time, for one reason or another.

Hm. The Litten had other concerns, unvoiced ones. Maaaaaybe he should follow up on that...

Lexx flipped through the logs again. "The sneasel, the psychic kid, the phone chick, and the awkward girl... all four of them voted to abstain in the end. But they didn't do it until after that's where the innocents were headed anyway. I think that's a clue." He made eye contact with the Litten. "Can't put my finger on it, but I feel like your logs have a bit more info on the Sneasel than mine. Got any insight? Were they actually waiting? Or had they tried to steer the convo that way all along?"

As far as he could tell, Number Nine and the Grovyle-variant had been the ones making an early push for that. Would've been easiest for the mafia to just wait and hop on that train once it was safe. But maybe the Litten knew something he didn't.

 

[windskull]

He glanced over his pamphlet again. He did have more info on the sneasel than he did the other players. But the information was patchy in parts, like it was all being recounted by memory, and not definitive proof. "It's a bit vague, but it seems like they latched onto the idea that a no lynch was beneficial for the sake of limiting suspicions turned towards them if they helped lynch a town member." He paused. "Its not clear whether they initially wanted it or decided to run with it. But there was definitely aim to subtlety influence the vote in that direction."

[[This is my way of saying that I don't remember some of the specifics just because it's been a while and the scumchat discord has long since been deleted so I can't refer back to it. Equita was also there, so if he remembers anything that I'm foggy on, he's free to chime in.]]

 

[Equitial]

[[My memories are a bit hazy too (I can't believe that game was only a year ago? feels sooooo much longer), but something I remember is that I *was* going to advocate for the pro-lynch side, but then the other Mafia suggested otherwise.

I think seeing who stayed on pro-lynch side was a big factor in who we decided to target the next night, but I don't remember the reasoning real well. I remember general "good going on not losing any members" vibes going around, though.]]

 

[Chibi Pika]

Lexx sighed. "Yeah, I figured some info might've been lost to time. No harm in asking though."

He spent the next few minutes poring over the logs from the second game. Why was he going to all this effort. It wasn't going to matter once someone got some hard evidence. Ah well...

(His logs were frustratingly devoid of any insight into the mafia's thought process at all. Did whatever force that brought him here literally have zero experience playing for the bad guys?)

"Against my better judgment," Lexx began dramatically, "I went back and checked when all each of the four mafia voted no-lynch. Fia opened with "takin aim at someone this round makes sense." Then Nip chimed in with a sort of hesitant, feeling-things-out kinda response, sounding like he was in favor of putting pressure on someone. Then, after some discourse on whether or not the Dark Charizard was sus, Jen and Gen came in with no-lynch, and then Fia and Nip flipped to that near the end of the day.

"Before the end, six people were against voting. Out of that six, two were mafia, or 33%." He leaned back in his chair--because apparently he had a chair now. "So what I'm getting from this is that the timing on when someone votes no-lynch is probably more important than the fact that they did it at all."

He glanced over at Jesse's boards. They sure had a lot of early votes for nobody, huh.

 

[IFBench]

sus

"I don't know why, but for some reason that word makes me want to scream," the chimera said.