Starlight Aurate said:
"That Inteleon... gone, huh..."
People and Pokemon all around Archie murmured with worry; some looked bemused, others confused. So, that's how this 'game' went, did it? Individuals would slowly be picked off and vanish without a trace? Well, if he was going to go down soon, then Archie had to take care of some duty first.
He took off at a sprint. In a few short seconds, he reached the silver-haired pretty boy, the self-proclaimed Pokemon "Champion."
Grabbing Steven by the shoulder, Archie punched the man's face, throwing his full weight into the punch. Steven flew through the air and collapsed onto the ground. Not wasting any time, Archie leapt on top of him, throwing more punches.
"No Pokemon, huh? Who's the 'Champion' NOW, pretty boy?!"
This is mostly just roleplay flavour I think, showing Archie figuring out how the game works (and punching Steven in the face). This isn't generally unusual for early posts when the discussion hasn't started.
Starlight Aurate said:
"YARRR!!!"
Archie yelped as a clawed hand wrenched him off of the Champion. A second later, his entire body was paralyzed--he knew that feeling all too well. An electric Pokemon had shocked him. Then his brain flooded with convulsions as a psychic attack hit him, sending him through the air. He then heard the grind and chitter of an angry Nosepass and unhappy Charmander as he lay on his back, stars dancing before his eyes.
He sat up. Thankfully, the electric and psychic attacks weren't that strong (the Pokemon were probably going easy on him, if he was honest, but he liked to think he was experienced enough to handle them). He gazed up at several angry pairs of eyes glaring at him.
"Ugh... all right..."
He slowly got to his feet, holding his head as spots continued to dance and his skull throbbed.
"That boy and I have some beef. Doesn't have anything to do with what's going on here, and doesn't have anything to do with that mutant Kecleon disappearing. It's between us. If someone wants to finish that 'Champion' off, be my guest. But he had it a long time coming."
"It's just a game," May said. "He's fine. He's just... out of the game."
She took a deep breath. "Anyway, I got a message last night. Guessing that's the mailman role we were told might be in the game. It wasn't very useful with no context, but just in case it means something we don't know about yet, I'm going to stay quiet on what it was for now."
"I should probably add... I got a message, too. It... didn't really make any sense. But it looks like we've got some mail
men at work here."
Again, roleplay flavour for the most part- which is still probably to be expected. She ends this post quoting Dragonfree's reveal of the message she received and responds with her own message. There are a few things I find odd about this: she could've easily brought this up in the first post, say, before having Archie punch Steven, since clearly she had no issue revealing it; she doesn't acknowledge focus other possibilities for the two messages besides two mailmen, which
could indicate two mailmen is what she wants people to think for some reason (granted, she just could've also not realised the other possibilities, making this a pretty dang small odd thing); and she puts the only game-related content
after the RP flavour, making it slightly harder to find (roleplay flavour is fine, but it shouldn't come at the expense of game play; in this case I can see why she would've done this, since she seemed inclined to stay IC as much as she could, and Archie's getting shocked would've realistically come first, but she could've gone OOC for the message thing then done the roleplay flavour; though this is also pretty dang minor and likely boils mostly down to my personal preference, making it definitely not something to all her scum over).
Starlight Aurate said:
"You, though," said Steven, fixing his assailant with a glare, still seated between Karo and his new Espeon friend. "I don't know what kind of 'beef' you think we have. I've never met you before in my life."
"Of course you don't," Archie laughed--and then winced as he gingerly felt his sore back muscles. "If you knew my face, I'd be doing poorly at my job. And this will be the last time you meet me. With you gone, the rest of Hoenn will be much easier to deal with."
"Aye, now that we've gotten our friendly reunions outta the way, perhaps we should begin to focus on...I dunno, all of this." He sat up on his hind paws and gestured to the entire void around them. "It's far from my first time - I've even played a game in this very void - so I know that our times are limited. As is our information currently," he grumbled.
"Okay, okay, hold up. HOW are all of these Pokemon talking? Where did you come from? You've played these games before? You want to explain what's going on? Or who you are? Or who any of these people and Pokemon are?"
Karo let his purring, or what passed for it, fade out. "I'll say. Here's what we know so far, right: one, the inteleon disappeared. Two, there's mail service here, but uh, it kinda sucks since not everyone's getting it. And three, one of us could maybe use some anger management or something."
[[Right, so, to recap... such as there is anything to this early, lol:
1.) Qitlan's out and was innocent
2.) May claims to have gotten mail
3.) So does Archie
(Hopefully I didn't miss anything else potentially important, pfff.)
The possibility of multiple mailfolk is interesting. What if one of them's on our side and one isn't?]]
Click to expand...
Archie chuckled. "I don't need to manage my anger, bud. It's all under control. I
embrace my fighting instincts."
Pretty much just roleplay flavor till here.
Star said:
[[Looks like Sike's recap is correct, at least as far as I can tell. I can see how communication between townies is definitely helpful, but not if the messages are nonsense
]]
This feels mostly like stating the obvious? "Sike has correctly summarized her summary", "Communication good", "not sure how nonsense helps". None of these things are revelatory thing the slightest. I said I didn't think Starlight gave me "trying to look like she's doing stuff vibes" before, but this section and the late arrival of the message might have me starting to change my mind...
Star said:
"Well yeah, but like. What if they can send messages to us? Messages that are total bs. They could screw with our heads," Karo suggested.
More of that nonsense wasn't appealing. Bad enough he was already playing hide-and-seek with his own memories.
[[What the nose said, basically. I can see potential for misinforming town if the mafia has the ability to message us.
Granted, if the messages really are as vague/confusing as they're being made out to be, we might have a tough time interpreting them correctly regardless of their intent.
Also this is as close as Karo's ever going to get to saying "shit" lmao.]]
Click to expand...
"Interesting..." Archie poised. ""So there might an innocent mailman, and a scum mailman? Well," he sighed as he shook his head. He looked at May. "I don't know about you, but whoever sent me my message... if there's some kind of code in it, they ciphered it too well. My message didn't look like instructions or real information of any kind. I think, whoever sent it was just letting everyone know that mailmen
exist in this game, though they obviously don't want to reveal their identities."
She's already revealed that her message is nonsense by this point, I believe, so she's just kinda repeating something Sike probably took into account I feel like... And despite acknowledging the one mailmen per faction theory, she doesn't actually give any thoughts on how she feels about its chances. She just repeats that she doesn't her message didn't tell her much outside the existence of there being a mailmen.
Stepping forward, she spoke in a quiet, though firm voice. "We started with fifteen, but there are now fourteen of us. Common sense tells us that our enemies are few, but they have the advantage of knowledge." She paused, concentrating, and formed fifteen glass orbs out of the malleable ground. Then she shattered one. "With this many of us, if my dreams can be believed, I suspect there are somewhere around three and four of us that are working together to harm us. And perhaps one third party looking to harm. The fact that there was only one death tells us nothing. One shot could have been blocked, or perhaps our third party could not kill on the first night. Both are possibilities." Of the fourteen remaining orbs, nine turned green, while four turned red. One remained clear and colorless. "I would suggest operating off of a higher estimate, and hope that I'm wrong."
[[So you think 4 mafia, 1 third party, and 10 townies? Pls that means no lovers]]
[/quote]
This post does at least imply a stance on her agreement with windskull's setup spec, by saying that she hopes there won't be lovers in a setup split that way.
Star said:
With one paw, she swept the red and clear orbs out of the way. "Based on what little we've been told thus far, there is at least one mailmon, maybe more. We could have one mailmon that delivers multiple messages, or two separate ones. One could be on our side, one could be on the other to throw us off.. Trick us. Or they could both be good. I can't see them both being bad. That would feel... weak."
"Ah, the same person could have sent both messages, couldn't they?" Archie mused. "So we might not have mailmen, but just one person disseminating messages."
I rescind my suggestion that Star did not though of other possibilities. I believe this is the first suggestion of one mailman. Not sure what waiting bring this up does.
Star said:
Her attention turned to the two strange lanky simipour that had mentioned messages [[May and Archie]]. "From what little you were able to garner, do you suspect your message was sent in code? Or is it just the lack of context that makes it confusing?"
"I don't think it was a code, just a nonsense phrase. My theory from before stands: I think someone innocent was just sending a message to let us know that a mailman--or mail
men--exists."
How many times in this same post has she repeated "I think its just nonsense"? She could've just responded all instances where that's what she says at once relatively easily I'd think? This is definitely compounding my impression that she might actually be trying to pretend to do something.
Star said:
"The only beef I'm really seeing here is yours, uneven as it is," he chided. Seriously, this guy looked like he was all pecks and head and no legs. At least, from what Dorien could see behind those wide legged pants (which have been out of style for ages, but that was a different issue). So not coke, but maybe poorly targeted steroids? Is that how steroids worked? Dorien never bothered with a substance that inferior, so he wouldn't know.
"Tone down on that 'roid rage; I can't imagine this is the place for it."
"You don't even know, kid. If anyone's attitude is uneven, it's
his." Archie pointed to Steven, sitting on the ground with a bloody nose, a few Pokemon snuggling up to him. "I'm fighting on behalf of ALL water Pokemon while he's apathetic about the destruction he causes. Like I said, my fighting isn't rage, it's
enjoyment. You wanna have a go?"
"And don't look me up-and-down all judgmental-like! I have a wetsuit, but it's tight and uncomfortable to wear outside the water! And I don't want to wear my big chain except for fancy occasions."
"Heathens," Dorien scoffed.
"I'm glad you noticed!"
"Look, if someone really did kill that Intereon, we should start by working together and find out who did," the Ledian said. "Instead of… that."
Kichiro pointed off at Archie and irkedly shook his head.
"I don't know about the lot of you, but I certainly don't feel like sitting around and waiting to get picked off whenever the lights go out," he insisted. "So let's start doing something about it. To begin with, has anyone seen or heard anything suspicious last night besides those strange messages?"
"Hey, don't get too judgmental! You never know how much you enjoy the fight until you get to really
embrace it. You've got four fists! Wanna put them to use? None of you would ever survive out at sea if you're not willing to stand up and fight for yourselves!"
More roleplay flavour.
Star said:
[[My thoughts are pretty much summed up by Sike/Windskull. Looks like we've got two potential mailmen (or just one who can send multiple messages?) and so far, that's all we've got to go off of. Both Free and I claim our messages were not useful and had no context.]]
"I agree". She's not super clear on exactly all of what she's agreeing with- basically, all she's clear on is that she believes there is mail, which is a given, and that she doesn't think the mail has info in it.
Starlight Aurate said:
[[Yo-ho! I only have 5 minutes and just caught up. Just popping in quick to say that no, my message was not the same as Free's. What I got was a quote from Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. If there's a code or something in there, feel free to let me know, because I sure can't make sense of it lol. I'll be back later with a fuller flavourpost because RP-ing as Archie is too much fun.]]
This is slightly useful.
Starlight Aurate said:
"Did all the water Pokemon ask you to fight for them?"
"Did your girlfriend
ask you to wear those hobo clothes?"
"I'm not sure how familiar you are with these games, but I'm not going anywhere regardless of what happens to me here. If anything, you've made sure I won't be forgetting your face any time soon. I look forward to meeting you again, back in Hoenn."
"If you make it that far," Archie said with a smile. "And if you end up like that Kecleon, tell the devil that Archie sent ya!"
"Hmph, I'll be fine given that I've been a sailor for over ten years," Kichiro scoffed. "I didn't exactly stay afloat by acting like a moron and picking fights with anyone who looked at me funny! That sounds like a fast way to get sunk by a bigger crew."
"Oh-ho! If you're a fellow sailor, then you'll be GREAT with Team Aqua! And that's nonsense--picking fights with others is how you become stronger! Well, if you don't get killed, that is."
May rubbed her forehead for a moment. "Okay, what was the first word of your message? Mine starts with a C. It has the word "received" in it. First word after that starts with an O."
"I think my--" Archie looks up at me, his icy blue eyes gazing into my own. "My maker? Writer? Whatever you are--" he looks back at May--"already explained this, but just to clarify, the first letter of my message was 'I'. The message is eight words long. And it contains the word 'day'."
"Do ya want the long version or the short version?" Altair asked with a wry smile.
"Either one! I enjoy listening to stories as much as anyone else, but it looks like we're here for a good time, not a long time."
[[forbidden lovers mailmen]]
[[pls Lord no]]
Nothing noteworthy here.
Star said:
All I know is the parrot’s gotta copy the same guy they visit. But I don’t think the blue-haired girl is a parrot anyway.”
"And what's your evidence for that?"
Okay question at least. Asking why person thinks thing is usually not bad.
Star said:
Whoever's running the game would have to work out that it's going to the mailman when the deadline expires - can't do it earlier than that since maybe a swapper decides to step in. Then after that they'd have to contact the parrot again about what message they want to send, then wait for them to come back with it. That doesn't make sense. I don't think that's what happened."
[[Okay, correct me if I'm wrong, but the confusing thing about the Parrot would be that it would mess with the timing of phases? Because if a Parrot targeted a Mailman, both would need those actions in before end of the night, and then the Parrot would ALSO need to get their message in, correct?]]
[[I guess this Parrot theory is something we should no longer... Parrot on about.]]
Not necessarily, if everyone got their actions in soon enough before the deadline the host could've let the Parrot know to submit a little before. Or the mailman doesn't choose their messages so the parrot also doesn't.
Not sure Star not suggesting this really means much, I could easily expect either side to be confused by the Parrot. I do think saying we should stop discussing something that appears impossible is good, stopping dead-end discussions from clogging up the thread is preferable.
star said:
I'm going to bed soon and I won't be fully available more than a few minutes between now and eod. We need to start deciding whether we want to vote someone out. I suspect we won't based on TR meta, but it's still a discussion to have.
"I NEVER pass up the opportunity for trial and hanging!"
[[Ignore Archie, he has a slight bloodthirsty streak. What are everyone's thoughts on voting? We have almost no info to go off of now, and TR mafia games usually don't vote anyone out D1. That being said, we can do the usual waiting and run the risk of having another town get killed tonight.]]
I would really appreciate if she took more of her stances outright instead of implying them based on context, because its so much easier to see where she's at, and implied stances are easier to backtrack on if she decides.
Altair laid down on the featureless ground, prodding its malleable surface. He seemed to be bored with the current conversation.
[[I'm not sure if I can fully subscribe to the idea of a Mafia mailman because it feels...weak. If there is one with the intent to deceive/throw off Town, then I don't get why the message would contain nonsense (though we'd probably need a wider pool than just N0 to try to confirm this). As a whole I feel that this entire convo regarding mailmen has been on the more unproductive side seeing that it's mostly speculation at this point. The messages being different doesn't confirm that they weren't sent by the same person.
Parrot theory can probably be thrown out the window though. Not dismissing the possibility of there being one in the game entirely, but if there is, they didn't use their action on the mailman.]]
[[I also feel like we'd need more than just N0 to confirm this, yeah. Otherwise, all we've got to say is that:
- 2 messages were sent N0
- There could be 1 mailman sending multiple messages
- There could be 2 mailmen each sending 1 message
- There could be a a mailman and a Parrot (though I think current consensus is to drop this theory, yes?)]]
[/quote]
I think Inke knows what the theories are. This adds literally nothing; Star just agrees with Inke on needing more time to be certain and repeats things everyone already basically knows. And even if we need more time to be certain, Star, especially as someone with a message, could do to take a stance on what theory she thinks is more likely.
star said:
"Rest assured that I won't hesitate to hit you back if you decide it's in your best interest to come at me," he said darkly. "Unlike some people, I can form a decent fist with my hand, so watch yourself."
In a few short strides, Archie closed the gap between them and his fist collided into Dorien's jaw with a meaty
SMACK!
Roleplay flavour.
Starlight Aurate said:
Just a personal flag that really has nothing more than a gut feeling fueled by previous experience, so as of this moment, unless something else DAMNING comes to light, I am currently leaning toward abstaining a vote because I have nothing more to offer at the moment kekwkekwkekw.
[[Yeeeaaaah I know you and Abra had a spat but I think it was all just honest mistakes and I'm personally in favour of abstaining a vote for today unless we get anything more than running amok with these mailmen theories.]]
Taking a stance only after other people have started to take the same stance.
star said:
Jet's tails lashed impatiently. "We gotta at least make everyone talk about if they wanna get rid of someone or not. Or else we'll be in the same spot tomorrow!"
"Fine!" Archie said with a smile and a shrug. "You wanna hear from the others first? Let's take a listen! By the way, have you ever tried pirating? You look like you'd make a FINE member of Team Aqua!"
[[Ah, this is bringing me back to the Overdrive Mafia game when nobody could agree on who to vote for and we were all getting anxious. Mems.]]
Star said:
[[Re:Voting. Normally I'd be banging on about how much I don't like a D1 Abstain and vote out a solid sus based on play...but literally nothing has happened outside of learning about the presence of a/multiple mailmen. Which doesn't ping much on the scum-radar. Serious lack of Real Clown Hours
.
Iiiiiif something pops up, then I'll be all for voting, but for now it looks like things are cruising towards an abstain.]]
[[I'm not firmly committed either way, I just don't feel like I have anything to go off of finding any scummy reads now. But anyone who has played this game with me before knows I'm not good at reading others ^_^;]]
This is still the same post where she said she's in favour of abstaining. Same post but now she's not sure. We love contradictions.
Altair turned to look at the fistfight and laughed at the pretty boy. "Are ya serious? I've seen baby-cheeked maidens punch harder than you!"
Archie smiled. "Feel free to jump in! The more, the merrier!"
In a single fluid motion, he balled that bloody hand into a fist and sent it flying into Archie's nose with a WHACK to match the volume of the hit he'd been given.
"I suppose you were warned."
Archie closed his eyes and reeled as his nose pulsed with pain. Putting a hand up, he felt the warmth of blood as a tingly sensation overcame his face. He tasted the blood drip from his nose and smiled at Dorien.
"Nice."
Reaching into his pockets, Archie pulled out a pair of brass knuckles and slipped them on.
"Ever seen these before? Normally I like to get more creative with my subordinates, but since there's no water around, my Pokemon aren't here, and there's no equipment for my other usual gigs, we'll have to do things the old fashioned way."
"Unless," he said with a side-eye at Altair, "how experienced are you with electric torture?"
[/QUOTE]
Roleplay flavour.
Starlight Aurate said:
So what's the goal of the message senders in the first place?
[[I guess the message senders probably wouldn't have a goal right now, would they? Other than to let everyone know that they exist? I can see how message sending would definitely be useful, but on N0 nobody knows anything about anyone yet.]]
Fair enough analysis based on the minimal use of the current existing role PMs.
[[Don't have much to say, other than that the parrot theory does sound very complex, and not probable. I think it's more likely we either have two postmen, a postman who can naturally act twice, or someone used a power on the postman that lets them act twice.]]
[[Oh, I didn't think of a strengthener! I do think that last one is least probable, just because I don't think anyone would hasten another player on N0 without know anything about each other.]]
[/quote]
Actually taking a stance on the likelihood of a theory of the bat. Interesting.
“I’ve seen plenty of brass knuckles,” he said flatly. “Ever been pumped with neurotoxin? We can play that ‘old-fashioned’ game too.”
The side-eye didn’t go unnoticed, and Dorien shifted his weight to his left leg. “I’m more into poison, but whatever gets you off. My eyes are over here, by the way.”
"I don't take supplements. Protein powder is for weenies. I catch my food with my bare hands.
"Oh, are you into electric torture, too? Some of my subordinates will have their Manectrics or Lanturns do it. Not much else to coerce people like a good ol' shocking."
"Hey, stop!" Burhalla shouted, running over to Archie and Dorien. "We can't fight! We need to cooperate to figure out who the bad guys are!"
Archie smiled at the little Charmander. "You're a young one, aren't ya? As you get older, kid, you're going to learn how to find and deal with the real 'bad guys'."
"Couldn't agree more," he said to Karo. "I don't know which is more ridiculous, the fact that this keeps happening, or that apparently everyone here is a pirate."
"Ridiculous?! Just look at you! You're wearing that skin-tight suit! How can you even move in that thing? And I'll have you know that pirating is one of the oldest professions. What makes it so strange now?"
"But we need to figure out the truth here!" Burhalla protested, trying to squirm out of Altair's grip. "We can't do that if we're all fighting!"
"Yes we can!"
Without another word, Archie delivered two swift punches: one weak left-handed punch to Dorien's face, then threw his weight into his right-handed punch to Dorien's abdomen.
[/QUOTE]
More roleplay flavour.
Starlight Aurate said:
[[Hi I only have a few minutes so Imma try to be quick.
[[Jackie here. Not getting any particularly strong scumvibes off anyone, and the heavy RP is somewhat obfuscating, so I don't have a vote. And that bothers me. I don't wish to abstain, you see. The more mafia games I play, the more I realise that starting vote bandwagons is one of the main resources Town has to acquire information based on who gets on the wagon and who gets defensive about it. I know it's not the TR social meta, and I know it's less attractive in role madness, but I've spent enough time thinking about it to decide that no-lynch earlygame weakens Town's social meta going forward. I'm going to think about this some more and discuss it with my hydra partner and decide on a vote, probably someone who's done pure RP or barely posted.]]
[[Shoot I'm sorry the RP has been hiding stuff! I can keep it to a minimum or stop altogether, if that'll be more helpful.]]
Roleplay usually slows naturally as the game continues, but I do think a willingness to stop immediately when this is brought up (despite Jackie not even outright saying "I want roleplay at a minimum") suggests to me that the obfuscation with the roleplay was at least not intentional; which is NAI at absolute worst, a bit townie at best.
star said:
I think the players I'm most cautious of are Inke and maybe pano and starlight? Starlight felt scummy in Namo's game but then turned out to be the cop. But Inke's current posts have pinged me as not being what I'm used to from her. Idk I might be overthinking. And additionally I don't think I've played in a game where inke was town before so I don't have much to compare against lol.
[[Just curious, but what do I do that comes off as scummy? I admit, I don't have much to point in favour of my innocence now, but I also don't know what much I can really say on D1.]]
I hate the "it's D1, there are no cases to make". You could make a case for your're towniness, if you had actually been townie. It is possible to get things done D1. It is preferable to get things done D1. This excuse feels a little scummy to me but given it comes every game and I don't think she's the only on who's made it I'll pretend it didn't happen in my final analysis.
I'll... explain a bit better. I don't mind abstaining and tbh I'm usually in favor of it because the last thing I wanna do is random-lynch the cop or something.
[[When has such a thing ever happened, especially D1
]]
[[Okay, I don't have much to off of either. I got a random message last night, and unless the thing Free said about messages being pre-selected, then I don't think mine made any sense. Nobody is really pinging me hard...? I always hate going after people who have been busy with real life stuff, and the most I feel I can do otherwise is go after an inactive. I really don't know what to do ._. If there's more activity and I can come on before EOD, maybe I can come up with a vote.]]
[/QUOTE]
This seems to be her last post. Despite having stated an inclination to abstain, she doesn't do that. She's pretty clear on "I don't have any reads really and I feel bad lynching someone so early" but she doesn't commit to not doing so. Granted, she implies an intent to come back and didn't get around to, but still.
Overall: Almost none of her posts get involved with discussion of actual players. She's generally very disinclined to commit to a stance on anything except her message being nonsense. She does do a few things that are okay but she's mostly pretty scummy. I'd be willing to lynch her in D2.
"Fascinating. We also received a message last night. One addressed to you. It began, 'Dear Muse'."
