Upon waking to a beach, Kimiko found her mood brightening. It wasn't much different than yesterday's desert; the heat, the sand, the same crowd... it really was amazing what water and a slight breeze could do for a setting.
But then she saw the petrified kirlia and the reality of the situation came crashing down on her once again (or at least, whatever passed for reality here). Disappointing that no one was able to protect Shimmer; he really was a tempting target amidst a sea of unknowns,
of course he was going to draw mafia eyes with a claim like that.
And so the usual morning chatter began. Kimiko was content, at least for the moment, to close her eyes and relax in the sun for a while as she listened. It seemed obvious enough to her, although she couldn't exactly put a vine on how she knew, that the kirlia was going to be a prime target. [[ This is because I had Oracle in a previous game and, in my research on how to utilize it properly, figured it was a pretty powerful role in the correct hands; namely, not mine, haha. ]]
[[I think the thing about the number of deaths ramping up as the game goes on makes sense.]]
If she still had eyebrows, she might have raised them at Dave. Was anyone still doubting this possibility at this point in the game, with all they'd learned so far? A cultist, possibly even two, a possible third party, normal mafia night kills... all evidence so far was that this was likely. Not that Dave agreeing was questionable, really; it just felt strange for anyone to be doubting it at this point.
He also did have a good point about sans not taking anyone down with him. That left her with the issue of how to utilize her power now, if her most likely opposite had been removed. There had been no further evidence of anything she could have an effect on up to this point, so unless something new came up... maybe she'd make an attempt to cleanse someone's strings instead and see if she could deal with those, too.
Courtney / Starlight (Clear)
Sidney / Pano (Clear)
Arc / Bench... Not the beast... but you had inspected yourself instead?
She opened one eye and waved a vine vaguely in the direction of Nanu. "Could you us a favor and list out exactly who all you've covered so far? If we can narrow down who is or isn't this, uh... "beast", and only your power can actually
kill them... I imagine we
could still vote them out if we can figure out who it is by deduction?
"So here you've got... Courtney, Sidney, and... Arctozolt, who you actually have no read on since it seems your last scan was swapped to yourself? I think I also vaguely recall you mentioning checking in Princess and Kekoa..."
[[I mean, I feel obligated to note that targeting you doesn't mean Abra is town, just that their block-haste action exists, which I don't think anyone doubted.]]
With a sigh, she turned to stare directly at the kadabra. "Hey, hi, nice to meet you. Listen, would you mind telling me why you targeted me last night?" [[
@AbraPunk tagging you since I didn't directly quote you here. I'm very ??? about your choice. Not suspicious yet, just would like to know what you were thinking...? I could hazard a guess or two but I'd rather hear from you first. ]]
I suspect that while the line about how "only I can kill the beast" is true. I think the opposite is true as well? In that "the beast can maybe easily kill me as well." and this may be speculation on my part?
"I don't see why not, however... I wouldn't expect the beast to
only be able to target you. It wouldn't make sense for you two to only be able to target each other, unless this beast had to only survive until D4 and eliminate you and only you in order to win? But wouldn't that count as a "role that ends the game early", which were stated to not be in this game?
"I think it's less likely that the beast has some kind of strongman ability (although I have no idea how it works so I guess it's possible?) and more likely that maybe it gets multiple kills in a night, perhaps to make up for the delay in being able to take action? It just seems a little overpowered to me for someone to be able to strongman kill every night." [[ Or were you implying that he simply has a one-use strongman alongside his usual kill? ]]
[[For what it's worth, we've already had plenty of people say their patron and get strung - more people doing it doesn't tell us anything. Really testing that theory means everyone keeps quiet about their patron from here on and we see if the stringer manages to string anyone else regardless.]]
[[Seconding this; I think it's a reasonably safe bet we have figured out how the strings happen, so unless they happen again under alternate conditions, it might be wise for people to shut up about their patrons for now. In thinking a bit more about it, I could absolutely see this as a way to "curb the enthusiasm" in a way... surely people would be
excited to figure out who got what legendary! The strings might be the way Namo balanced the game so as to not allow everyone to just start throwing our their abilities. Pretty sure this was suggested by someone else, too, quite a ways back, but I don't have the energy to go back and look for who said it. ]]
[[Or maybe they gain the ability to nightkill? But that doesn't seem very related to the stringing ability.]]
[[Also seconding this, as that was how I was assuming this beast might function. It tracks with the "multiple deaths as the game progresses" theory, and I wouldn't count this as role that's active/inactive on alternate nights... I suspect it's just a (likely hostile) time-activated kill role, that's all. ]]
maybe the only exception maybe being Seren since both Mafia and Town would benefit from being able to shield from status/marking powers, but that seems like a stretch given their town-helpful play thus far.
"I guess I'll just accept that as some sort of backhanded compliment," said the snivy with a frown and a shrug.
[[ Don't mind her, she's just sore that her main utility isn't likely to be useful anymore. ]]
"...Who asked
you?" she said with a glare, burying her guardian stone in the sand beside her.
Seren came out with their full hard claim, a lot of LOOOOONG posts about their observations, huge difference from their overall scum play in Banquet, I just feel good about them at the moment.
"Well, at least there's that going for me, even if my arsonist!sans theory was wrong."
Tetra - Got more active as the game went on, and seems to be playing more to character, but I really don't appreciate their random name-dropping of me as a potential sus target. I offered to softclaim my role in attempt to further assist town, they said nothing to that (not that that really MEANS much but still), but they're inclined to just throw me out as a potential sus party? I would like to know what exactly I have done to make them say "HMMMM" besides be somewhat inactive the past two Days. It feels weird to me especially because it seems they've been waffling around everyone's null/sus lists the whole game, and it feels very grasping-at-straws-y to me. Also massive side eyes.
"Just would like to point out that Bruh did this exact same thing to me and no one questioned it except myself; no follow-up explanation was offered when I prompted, other than the fact that I'm on their "meh" pile. I don't really think this is indicative of either Bruh nor Tetra, but it's god damn
infuriatingly unhelpful."
Fray - I still feel some type of way about their claim, and how generally confusing it was. I also (think) I've noticed they've kind of fallen a little more under the radar since there was an almost vote train on them. MASSIVE side-eye right now.
"I agree that Fray's kind of slipped under the radar but I also feel that's more a result of the investigation shifting away from them and onto to other targets. Would be a good one to revisit today."
Sinderella - she needs some milk.
"You and me both, dude. ...Dudette? Er...."
"I don't really know how else to word this in order to vaguely get the point across, but here it goes anyway...my role is very useful if I'm targeted by other town roles," she announced.
"I at least can verify that this is a possibility in this game; my passive ability is much the same."
Did Seren ever confirm what his mark does? He says it's 'protective,' but did he specify from what?
I got protective/helpful vibes from Seren, but I'm still not sure what he *does*. The dude was considering calling into work late to work on this though, lol. Which might not say anything. I feel like he's been helpful and offering information, though he's mostly just refuted Yellow's (honest mistake) previous incorrect statement about the mark and claimed that he's protecting players. A protective role overall feels like a towny play to me but I don't feel totally clear of him, especially if he's protecting from some TP or if he's TP and protecting from Mafia.
"Wh... Have you been paying attention at all? I've lost count of how many times I've told the crowd what I do. Really, I..." She paused, taking a deep breath. No reason to get angry over repeating herself; she'd asked others to repeat themselves in this game, too. She began again, slower, quieter, and hopeful that she sounded calmer. "Akin to firefighter, we believe I can clear sans' cult marks or whatever the hell he claimed to be able to do. Given that we never
saw what sans can do, I have no way to prove what my mark does. It cures a very specific "status", according to my legendary card. Because no one has given me the name of that status, and sans is now gone, I can't verify anything any longer."
[[ uhhhhh no.
1. making everything visible means people will have time to fabricate lies
2. galaxy brained people can use this to their ulterior advantage
3. mafia/possible remaining cult would immediately go to eliminate/recruit what they see as the most powerful roles
4. idk generally not a good idea personally ]]
"Gonna be honest, buddy, I... don't understand this at all? Like, I'm also against a mass-claim at this point, but like. Most of your points are really... not good reasons to be against one? Let me try to go through this and see if I can't figure it out...
1. Making everything visible.... means everyone will be able to lie about what they can do? The whole point of a mass-claim is to weed out people who are trying to claim roles they don't really have... So like, what... the liars would just wait to see what's claimed and then claim something not on the table? Is that what you're afraid of here?
2. Ulterior... advantage? I get that some people seem to be better at figuring things out and putting puzzle pieces together than others, but... again, the point of a mass-claim is that those people would hopefully be able to work out who is telling the truth about what they can do.
3. Okay, granted, mafia could start picking off the roles of their choosing, I guess. But right now, beast aside, the other speculated TP is the stringer, who at this point we have no reason to believe can start stringing people at will.
So uh... okay. I get it. I don't like the idea either. But frankly, your reasoning leaves me scratching my head.
That said... I feel like we have other areas to explore right now without having everyone throw their roles on the table. Fray and Courtney, for example. Also there's...definitely just
a bad feeling I get from the idea of having every role exposed and still having to guess who is lying about it. This is largely a personal problem, however. I feel I have zero to lose to reveal the rest of my abilities, so if the consensus decides it's worth it, I won't argue against it."
[[ Only one summary post tonight. ]]