[Town victory] Vanilla Mafia!

[Fusion]

Reme gave Mike a look over, then sighed, shaking her head. "It's fine, I know this would be a lot for most to deal with. At least you're sane enough to snap out of it."

She sat down besides the human and shut her eyes, thoughtful. "That is quite different from how psychic-types function in my world; it's our mental prowess being boosted by our power instead of the other way around. To put it simply, if you're spatially aware of your surroundings, you can move items with your mind once given aura. If you can imagine the beach in vivid detail, you can teleport there with aura."

"But if you wanted to hurt someone with aura you would need to be skilled in aura manipulation instead of having exceptional mental fortitude. And in order to manipulate aura by yourself, you need to first have it. And I, do not," Reme said, patting her bag. "Which is why I had this bag specially made to carry more than the usual Explorer's Satchel."

 

[Homestar!]

Reme gave Mike a look over, then sighed, shaking her head. "It's fine, I know this would be a lot for most to deal with. At least you're sane enough to snap out of it."

She sat down besides the human and shut her eyes, thoughtful. "That is quite different from how psychic-types function in my world; it's our mental prowess being boosted by our power instead of the other way around. To put it simply, if you're spatially aware of your surroundings, you can move items with your mind once given aura. If you can imagine the beach in vivid detail, you can teleport there with aura."

"But if you wanted to hurt someone with aura you would need to be skilled in aura manipulation instead of having exceptional mental fortitude. And in order to manipulate aura by yourself, you need to first have it. And I, do not," Reme said, patting her bag. "Which is why I had this bag specially made to carry more than the usual Explorer's Satchel."

Mike looked over, riveted by how completely different that was than his own world.

"Where I'm from, it's more like a muscle that psychic-types can flex," Mike clarified. "The more they use it, the more they can do with it. Some wild psychic-types are completely feral, but horrifically strong with their abilities. On the flip-side," Mike grinned, "you get idiots like Mitochondria. 'Mito' for short, he's my Reuniclus. Just got him in a trade, actually. You think I'm a character? That guy, he's a riot.

"And very clever, but when it comes to the psychic thing?" Mike made a noise and tilted a splayed-flat hand a few times. "Needs work. He insists on using his newfound arms to do everything."

 

[Fusion]

"Please, Mike, I don't think you're just a character..." Reme began, a someone sweet smile on her face. "You might as well be the entire story!" That smile gave way for some laughter, then a pleased sigh.

"Coincidentally, one of the Reuniclus I know is also fond of using his arms instead of his psychic abilities. An odd man, he is, but one to respect..." Reme paused for a second, then looked to Mike again, deadpanned. "And he would actually approve of the nickname "Mitochondria" which I feel bad for just now getting."

 

[Homestar!]

Mike closed his eyes, laid back, and forced himself to think.

After a moment, he had puzzled out exactly the next question to ask.

"Wes," Mike called out suddenly. "I am one-hundred percent confident in my vote for the Sylveon. Why aren't you?"

 

[Homestar!]

"Please, Mike, I don't think you're just a character..." Reme began, a someone sweet smile on her face. "You might as well be the entire story!" That smile gave way for some laughter, then a pleased sigh.

Mike joined her for a chuckle.

"Y'know, it feels like that more and more lately," Mike agreed.

"Coincidentally, one of the Reuniclus I know is also fond of using his arms instead of his psychic abilities. An odd man, he is, but one to respect..." Reme paused for a second, then looked to Mike again, deadpanned. "And he would actually approve of the nickname "Mitochondria" which I feel bad for just now getting."

"Well," Mike grinned, "actually, Mito's name was my idea. Scott and I were best friends, and he asked me for any ideas, and he loved the idea of," Mike waved a hand infront of him, "Mitochondria: the Powerhouse of the Team."

 

[Fusion]

Reme blinked, putting her hands together and holding them just in front of her mouth. She then pointed them at Mike, saying, with a deceptively flat expression, "Mike that is the most adorable shit I've fucking heard."

 

[Homestar!]

Reme blinked, putting her hands together and holding them just in front of her mouth. She then pointed them at Mike, saying, with a deceptively flat expression, "Mike that is the most adorable shit I've fucking heard."

Mike let loose a loud, long laugh. Adorable wasn't the word he was expecting.

 

[Homestar!]

[[Oh sorry, @HelloYellow17 shoulda tagged u earlier my b]]

Mike closed his eyes, laid back, and forced himself to think.

After a moment, he had puzzled out exactly the next question to ask.

"Wes," Mike called out suddenly. "I am one-hundred percent confident in my vote for the Sylveon. Why aren't you?"

 

[HelloYellow17]

Mike closed his eyes, laid back, and forced himself to think.

After a moment, he had puzzled out exactly the next question to ask.

"Wes," Mike called out suddenly. "I am one-hundred percent confident in my vote for the Sylveon. Why aren't you?"

“Honestly, I just don’t want to accidentally eliminate one of our own. We can’t afford to be wrong with so few of us left. But…” he sighed. “They’ve done a terrible job of defending themselves, and I won’t pretend otherwise. I’m not against voting for them, but I’d like to hear others’ thoughts too.”

[[ @TheGOAT and @Sinderella , any thoughts? Also @Shiny Phantump ?]]

 

[HelloYellow17]

[[To clarify to those I tagged, I’m asking for your thoughts on who we should vote for today and why. It’s basically between Sparkleglimmer and Astrid. The day ends in less than 24 hours so we should make some decisions.]]

 

[Homestar!]

“Honestly, I just don’t want to accidentally eliminate one of our own. We can’t afford to be wrong with so few of us left. But…” he sighed. “They’ve done a terrible job of defending themselves, and I won’t pretend otherwise. I’m not against voting for them, but I’d like to hear others’ thoughts too.”

"Problem being that we've got a worse chance of eliminating one of our own by going after Astrid," Mike contested. "They've been so gosh-darned quiet.

"The way I see it, this is how things oughta play out..."

Spoiler: Now [I]this[/I] is Mikeposting

[[Step 1: We vote out Espy.

Step 2: See how they flip:

- 2g: If they flip good, we're in The Darkest Timeline™. The only information we glean is that the remaining lovers are actually lovers (and we can assume they're town bcuz Mafia lovers lmaoooo

- 2b: If they flip bad, we can't take any of their information at face value. The lovers are immediately suspect.

Step 3: Chibi, based on the above, chooses a target to investigate.

- 3g; Good!Espy: Chibi does whatever they borkin' want. This is where "a-chain" ends. Good dog!

- 3b: Bad!Espy: Chibi needs to investigate the lovers. This is absolutely integral to how we should play on Day 6! We really shouldn't take Espy's word, and we really shouldn't leave the living Lover pair uninvestigated.

Step 4: We see who died in the night.

- 4b-1: The Lovers Died. Chibi "wasted" her night, however it should be noted that there's no mafia-specific power roles left to sniff out, and "wasting a night" isn't as bad as it seems here. Also worth noting: This all but locks in the 4-total-Mafia theory.

- 4b-2: Chibi died. This means the lovers have something to hide, as in this stage of the game the Mafia has made it clear that they've begun to target lovers. It would not make sense for Mafia to trade 1-for-1; why on earth would it make sense for Mafia to trade 1-for-2?
--- It should be noted that the Mafia very well could eliminate Chibi to instigate further suspicion towards the lovers, however, this is the bad!Espy timeline. The Lovers are already implicated by a negative flip.
--- I am honestly basing this plan working off of a gut feeling that the two remaining Mafia players did not think this far ahead. Because I am fuckin' balls deep Mikeposting right now and idk if I am even following my logic anymore.

- 4b-3: A player besides The Lovers or Chibi died. Chibi gets to report the lovers and clear their names!
--- bad!Chibi throwing Free under the bus is a really terrible play for the bad guys. I'm 100% on good!Chibi at this point. As such, this scenario has a near-0% chance of happening.

Step 5: I stop rambling because I talked myself into (and subsequently out of) a fervor here.]]

"Thoughts?"

 

[Shiny Phantump]

[[I’ve been pretty busy with back to back social stuff and getting ready to move into uni res the last two days but I have time for a quick post now: I think, given the seeming absence of a Mafia Doctor in Jackie and Eq’s innocent flips, that we have a Mafia Rolecop, or else they have no power roles but Juggernaut, which I think is extremely unlikely. It’s also apparent that that Mafia Rolecop isn’t Chibi. So, by process of elimination I think it’s Espy. It seems to me she misplayed as either faction so I can’t read much from that, but I don’t think I need to either.

VOTE: SPARKLEGLIMMER]]

 

[HelloYellow17]

I think, given the seeming absence of a Mafia Doctor in Jackie and Eq’s innocent flips, that we have a Mafia Rolecop, or else they have no power roles but Juggernaut, which I think is extremely unlikely. It’s also apparent that that Mafia Rolecop isn’t Chibi. So, by process of elimination I think it’s Espy.

Oh. Wes hadn’t quite thought of it that way. “That’s…a good point. I guess we’re agreed, then.”

Vote: Sparkleglimmer

 

[Chibi Pika]

Ebony watched as the votes rolled in. "So... it looks like the group mostly wants to get rid of Sylveon then? That makes sense, but..."

She made eye contact with Wes, the only one who seemed to be thinking the same thing as her. "I don't think it's safe."

"My Voice spent a lot of time thinking about Sylveon! And, umm... it's all too complicated for me. I'll let you all read it!" She grabbed some papers from a bag around her neck and scattered them across the lunar surface.

Spoiler: Chibi's Big Damn SparkleGlimmer Analysis

I reread every single one of Espeon's posts so you don't have to. Here's what I found:

Tone: Checks out. Feels solidly genuine. No manipulation alarms tripped.

Mechanics: A bit shaky. The role checks reported are weird. N0 (Porygon-Z) sounds convenient/fake. N1 (Mike) could almost be scum-motivated. But then N2 (Anti) is actually identical to my thought process in checking Anti. And N3 (me) is... weird for reasons I'll go into later.

Interactions: A cursory glance at everything Dragonfree said to or about Espy doesn't yield much. There are sensible explanations for all of it, whether Espy is town or scum. Both seem equally likely.

Setup: This is the one that's getting to me. By all accounts, in a logical setup, Espy should be scum. But... is this a logical setup? I don't know. I think over-relying on logic here might be dangerous. I was sure that a mafia doctor made logical sense for the setup, and I was wrong.

Some key points:

• Pretending to not know if I'd claimed is just... a really weird facade for scum to pull. I'm not sure that it would ever occur to them to do that? Please remember that we've confirmed Dragonfree was scum leader. When asking 'would it make sense for scum to play like this' you really should be asking 'would it make sense for Dragonfree to play like this.' Dragonfree is terrifyingly good at scum, and when she does misplay, it doesn't involve logic holes.
• Espy insisting that there's probably a mafia doctor after all town docs are gone and when a very obvious heal clash (on me, N3) failed to happen is... odd. What purpose does it serve for scum?
• Coming up with a provably wrong hint? With Dragonfree as a partner? Sure, scum make each other look bad all the time, but the bad hint was the thing that made us sus of her to begin with. That's a weird way to bus.
• I can't see this scumteam intentionally going out of their way to make like five weird/creative misplays in a row, unless the intent was like... Espy feeling overwhelmed and setting up a way for Dragonfree to gain towncred by making a case against her before getting derailed by me. That's... unlikely. (That or Dragonfree was asleep and Espy went rogue??)
• Scum got rid of Hana and left me. That's a huge red flag. I'm worried they wanted me to tunnel on Espy.
• Espy dropping the doubts about Clovis/Pixie and not giving us another target feels weirdly defeatist?
• Dragonfree frequently reminded us that Steven might not have been rolecop. Obviously we can't trust that, except that Mafia did not go after Steven. Altair did. This seems to imply that she genuinely did not think he was rolecop. Or at the very least, had some motive to make us want to believethat another rolecop was possible. Possible reasons:
  • A. She knew scum had one, and wanted to make sure we didn't insta-yeet them later.
  • B. She knew scum didn't have one, and by constantly mentioning how unlikely two town rolecops was, hoped to have a ready-made excuse to find the 2nd one very sus, and also look useful for having said so all along.
• Notice that when I got ""confirmed"" as scum in her self-defense, there was not so much as even a side mention that me being "scum" soooorta made Espy look better by comparison. The door to a later Espy lynch needed to remain open.

So overall, in order for Epsy to be scum, we need to jump through like five increasingly unlikely hoops with a scumteam using an ultra-ballsy refuge-in-audacity strategy. I don't buy it.

"So, umm... because of all that, I really don't feel very safe voting for Sylveon at all. I think... I think we need to vote for the Ninetales. She hasn't really... done anything to seem bad. But if Sylveon is good... who's left?"

"So that's everything! I think we need to vote for the Ninetales! Astrid!"

 

[HelloYellow17]

[[DANGIT HSKAHSKDIAHKSHS MY TIMING IS TERRIBLE LOL]]

No sooner had Wes spoken did Ebony address the group with her analysis, voicing all of the concerns he’d had. He folded his arms and sighed. Maybe he’d spoken too soon, after all.

Coming up with a provably wrong hint? With Dragonfree as a partner? Sure, scum make each other look bad all the time, but the bad hint was the thing that made us sus of her to begin with. That's a weird way to bus.

“That was the biggest red flag to me, too,” he said. “That’s…a big mistake for a group of people to make.”

Scum got rid of Hana and left me. That's a huge red flag. I'm worried they wanted me to tunnel on Espy.

“She’s far too easy of a target. Of course they’d leave her alive in hopes that we would throw her out and give them another day.”

So overall, in order for Epsy to be scum, we need to jump through like five increasingly unlikely hoops with a scumteam using an ultra-ballsy refuge-in-audacity strategy. I don't buy it.

“Thank you,” Wes said with a curt nod. “I’ve been saying this the whole time. Dammit, I shouldn’t have doubted my instincts. I’m telling you all, that Ninetales needs to go.”

Vote: Astrid

 

[Homestar!]

"So that's everything! I think we need to vote for the Ninetales! Astrid!"

"So what do we have against Astrid," Mike asked, all too incredulously, "inactivity?"

He wasn't thrilled with the idea, but he also knew that the Houndoom's credibility was much stronger than his own. He wanted to learn more, and going after Astrid felt like shooting in the dark.

"I suppose the rest of my plan works if we don't vote for Sparkleglimmer," Mike mused. "Ebony, can I still request that you double-check the lovers tonight? I know you think the Sylveon is telling the truth, but I can't shake the 'six total mafia' theory.

"Though I very well can't stop you checking anyone else," he shrugged and sighed.

 

[Homestar!]

[[UNVOTE: SPARKLEGLIMMER

VOTE: ASTRID]]

 

[Namohysip]

Early evening votes:

Sparkle: 2 (Persephone, Phant)
Astrid: 3 (Chibi, Yellow, Homestar)

No vote: Espeon, Goat, Sinderella, Fusion

Four and a half hours remain.

 

[Fusion]

Reme shrugged. "Perhaps I should break my streak of not voting and follow the crowd."

"I vote for Astrid," Reme said, then cleared her throat. "Did not like that... And I would much prefer if Astrid had a chance to speak their mind, but... alas."

 

[HelloYellow17]

"So what do we have against Astrid," Mike asked, all too incredulously, "inactivity?"

“A good town player would speak up far more than Astrid has,” Wes said. “And flying under the radar is a notorious tactic for those who want us dead.”

[[I want to clarify that I know Goat has been very busy irl, which could certainly be why they’ve been so quiet, but I also think that if they were town, they would have been at least a little more active than they have been. Espy’s been busy too, but she’s still made an effort to participate, defend herself, etc. Plus, minimal participation is a pretty common play style for scum. So yes, lack of engagement is very suspicious.]]