Long Game 74: You Want It Darker

[StrikerEZ he/him]

9 minutes ago, Tani said:

Illwei, Striker.

You're all welcome for switching my vote a lot again. It's going to become my thing.

Care to explain why or to switch your vote again?

5 minutes ago, Biplet said:

Striker and Illwei yes. I'm still uncertain where the suspicion on Reading came from. I may be stupid.

I'm gonna be honest and say that I don't really remember where the suspicion came from for Reading either.

9 minutes ago, Biplet said:

General lack of concrete info in PMs, and points easy to fake or defend from Striker. Also, he jumped right on voting for Tani after Illwei did, blaming it on emphasizing being new. Hello? I've done the same thing! I can say at least for myself it's not me being like "oh look at me, I don't know anything and am harmless," but actually not knowing how things work around here. I know of at least two people that can say I've asked them basic questions about game slang in PMs.

While, unlike Tani, I haven't played games like this before (unless you count the deck of cards version of Mafia I guess), but they could easily just be confused even after having played games elsewhere. Interesting that that point would be made specifically about Tani, and not me, when we're in virtually the same boat.

I mean, I wasn't even trying to say that Tani was overemphasizing how new they were. I was just trying to say that like...it felt like they were using the fact they were new to do all that vote hopping and stuff. Which...as of right now, I'm not sure I think that anymore. And with you, I think it's genuine confusion, though you're already starting to get the hang of things.

13 minutes ago, Biplet said:

Anyway, old points. Nonetheless: Striker. Oof, this feels bad.

Ouch, but hey, fun way to start off our first game together!

Anyway, what exactly are the main points against me? @Matrim's Dice...apparently I can no longer tag players? Okay. Someone wanna tag the others voting on me for me?  I'm just wanting everyone who's voting on me to like...explain why exactly they're voting on me, so I can go through and like...make arguments against them? I'm pretty sure I won't be surviving this turn either way, but may as well take a shot at convincing some people to vote on like...Illwei or Gears or Pyro or TJ or Maill with me.

Speaking of which, list of my reads on people, based entirely on just what I can remember right now:

Strong Elim: TJ (not 100% sure why, but some of that stuff with the LG67 thing just rubbed me the wrong way like...he was trying to make it seem like, oh of course we would've known not to focus on Ventyl if he'd survived but...I dunno. been getting odd vibes from him), Maill (I've been getting stranger and stranger vibes from him as the game has gone on, both in PMs and in thread. He's probably my first suggestion to look at when I die).
Mild Elim: Gears (mostly gut, based just on tone from his stuff. I know this is probably the same as how his posts always make me feel, but hey, eventually I gotta be right someday ), Quinn (eh? not sure, but not null. Probably could go on either side of the null, depending on which post of hers I read ), Illwei (mostly because of odd vibes from D1 and less odd vibes, but still present vibes from today), TUO (everything with those like...subtext claims being all over the place just gave me bad vibes), Pyro (wasn't a fan of how he treated Elandera last turn, plus he's been doing odd things. not my strongest elim read, but put it here because he's not null and not mild village). 
Null: Fifth (I know he's voted more to not belong in this category, but I honestly have no opinion on the stuff he's done so far), Reading (like I said, don't remember why the train started on him or anything about him really), Dannex, Devo, Experience, The Windrunner Supreme, Burnt, Stink, Daisy, Young Bard.
Mild Village: Mat (we seem to run into some sort of argument at the start of every game somehow, and this last time wasn't any different. I think he's probably village, but I always worry about him, so he's only mild for now), Araris (got some relatively good vibes from him, and he feels like village!Araris to me, at least so far), Ash (I know I'm voting on him, yes, but I think he's probably not elim? but he's my best chance at surviving right now), Stick (she seems to be pretty legitimately trying to solve the game, even if we disagree. trying not to let my disagreements affect my judgement of people), Tani (despite everything, I'm putting her here for now, because I think I've been convinced that the way she's playing is just a playstyle thing).
Strong Village: Elandera (making really good comments and starting to help out and seems to want to have fun and solve the game; seems pretty good to me), Bippy (she seems like she is legit just confused so far, though learning pretty progressively. Plus she seems to be actively trying to solve the game, so pretty sure she's village).

Striker(7): Matrim's Dice, The Windrunner Supreme, Maill, Quinn, Fifth, Tani, Bippy
Ashbringer(3): Young Bard, Stick, Striker, 
Araris(2): Illwei, Experience
Gears(1): TJ
TUO(1): Ash
Pyro(1): Araris

Anyway, I'll be off and on for the next couple hours, but probably won't post anything nearly this long again. 

[Experience he/him]

Hmmm. I feel like Maill's trying to pocket me in PMs... It's a stronger gut feeling then Araris, so i'll go with that for now. 

[---]

2 minutes ago, Biplet said:

Oh and also the random vote on Tani that I don't think ever got explained

That was me trying to get something out of Tani- which...

I don't even know what to think about Tani rn >>

I still feel like her in-thread things are village. Still confused about like "no I'm not new, but yes I'm new, but no I'm not" but if she was an elim also why not just...play new?? I

I donno

I don't like how striker has just picked up so fast like

Can I even use the "no one is defending him" thing?

All the reasoning seems to be "idk but i swear he was sus"

heyo I'm one of those two people pog

i feel special

Anyways

--

uhhhhhhhhhh reads

I like bip and mat and stick

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

i like TJ and Tani and Quinn for the most part

...I think-

so-

I keep looking at quinn and going "why isn't she obvious villager I thought quinn was always obvious villager"

and then i was like

"well when did I think quinn was obvious villager"

"oh"

"MR48"

but anyways i like Quinn. Fifth. Araris, burnt.

mmmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmm

Araris

Pyro

honestly not getting good vibes from XP rn

[StrikerEZ he/him]

Ash. Pyro. Same chance of possibly surviving, except now I’m voting on someone I suspect.

[Mailliw73 he/him]

7 minutes ago, Experience said:

Hmmm. I feel like Maill's trying to pocket me in PMs... It's a stronger gut feeling then Araris, so i'll go with that for now. 

Uh... I feel like this generation of newer players is used to very different types of PMs than I am... Our PM in the last 24 hours is literally me asking about your suspicions, you say you aren't sure, need to catch up, Quinn is a bit off, you had a bad gut read on me but now it's null. I said Quinn? You said Quinn and Illwei are hard to read and I said that they were definitely an interesting couple of players. 

That's it. Is it pocketing because I am friendly in my responses? Is it because I agreed that Quinn and Illwei could be more difficult to read? Like, I agree on one thing and people think I'm pocketing? I'm just confused about how PMs are used now. 

[Biplet she/her]

6 minutes ago, Illwei said:

Araris

Pyro

honestly not getting good vibes from XP rn

 

3 minutes ago, StrikerEZ said:

Ash. Pyro.

[StrikerEZ he/him]

Just now, Biplet said:

 

[---]

Just now, Biplet said:

 

Wait

why is there no border on your :thonk:

what am i doing wrong

[Biplet she/her]

Just now, StrikerEZ said:

 

Just now, Illwei said:

Wait

why is there no border on your :thonk:

what am i doing wrong

[---]

Just now, Biplet said:

 

[Experience he/him]

4 minutes ago, Mailliw73 said:

Uh... I feel like this generation of newer players is used to very different types of PMs than I am... Our PM in the last 24 hours is literally me asking about your suspicions, you say you aren't sure, need to catch up, Quinn is a bit off, you had a bad gut read on me but now it's null. I said Quinn? You said Quinn and Illwei are hard to read and I said that they were definitely an interesting couple of players. 

That's it. Is it pocketing because I am friendly in my responses? Is it because I agreed that Quinn and Illwei could be more difficult to read? Like, I agree on one thing and people think I'm pocketing? I'm just confused about how PMs are used now. 

Maybe. I dunno. It's just the best gut feeling I have at the moment. 

[---]

If you think you can read me here then raise your hand

[Mat he/him]

9 minutes ago, StrikerEZ said:

Anyway, what exactly are the main points against me? @Matrim's Dice...apparently I can no longer tag players? Okay. Someone wanna tag the others voting on me for me?  I'm just wanting everyone who's voting on me to like...explain why exactly they're voting on me, so I can go through and like...make arguments against them? I'm pretty sure I won't be surviving this turn either way, but may as well take a shot at convincing some people to vote on like...Illwei or Gears or Pyro or TJ or Maill with me.

Alright, I suppose I've been putting this off long enough  Be warned, it will be extensive. (Tagging @Illwei cause I think they wanna know too)

Future Mat here: I got ninja'd at least 12 times, no exaggeration. So that's cool.

Farther future Mat here: The links for D2 won't work after the cycle ends, because the threads will be merged. Sorry.

Mat's Suspicions: Episode One - StrikerEZ

Dunno if this will be a recurring thing, I might do a Maill one and a joint Tani/Bard/Araris one. (Little teaser there- I suspect Araris now too [Now being as of a couple of hours ago])

Anyway-

Day One:

First off is this post, which I replied to here. The points here still stand- As multiple people have said, these ideas have plenty of holes that gave/give the vibe of a plan that looks good on the surface but benefits the elims. In this situation I don't think elim!Striker expected those holes to be poked so quickly  Something to note is that Striker's original train was also half-fueled by their suspicion of Gears, which is not something I agreed was worth voting Striker for. That may be why no one remembers why they were sussed.

This discussion went on for awhile.

-----Sidenote: Post by Bard lightly defending Striker, early enough on with the votes spread out enough to possibly be e/e. Too tinfoily? :P.

Next: This post. Bear with me here, because this point won't be as universal, but I do not do not like this vote. Illwei at this point (still does) seem(s) perfectly normally village to me- to me this line of reasoning feels extremely forced. Their whole push on Illwei reads off to me. A few pages later is another one of those, here. 

-----Sidenote: How worthy of note is it that Maill was also voting Illwei at this point? (About 1/2 through D1)

Third: They were linking elim!me with elim!Books very strongly, here, here, and here, all in quick succession. If Striker was evil they'd know Books was village, which somewhat snuffs this out, but you also have to remember Striker was somewhat leading the votes here. He'd want anything to turn attention away from his exe. Admittedly this is rather tinfoily and my point is more about the repeated insistence of his point than his point itself.

Post from TJ that sums up reasoning against Striker as well.

-----Sidenote: Around here Bard votes Books, which is a turning point away from Striker.

Whew.

Night One:

With Books dead, the night begins.

This from Striker casts massive shade on Reading, which I disagree with. More people did this but Striker was the first. I and the majority are of the mind that the manip doesn't particularly make Reading look like anything, so this is a massive exaggeration. Then Striker seems to shift opinions without saying it outright- post here- backpedaling on the accusation the manip was to save Reading and instead saying that we really have no clue when/how the manip was used.

And then the whole thing with Ventyl- not going to link every post but the first one is here . This could be read multiple ways, but now that Ventyl's flipped village I'm inclined to read it as an elim casting shade on a village Smoker. And who knows- maybe elim!Striker was planning to use elim!Smoker to do just that. Striker made it very clear his stance on this, and that sort of could be what got Ventyl killed. And maybe that was his plan, I dunno. (Assuming he's elim, that is :P. Which I am.)

*Breathes*

Day Two:

Almost done...

-----Sidenote (can I do that at the start of a new section?): Maill links Striker/Illwei together from something I linked Striker/Maill. Interesting.

Not as much of a point against Striker because we don't actually know, but Striker pushes the assumption that the elims are ones to go for low-info kills multiple times. I mean, it's D1  Low info makes sense. I'm more curious of who they'll go for next.

Votes for Stick, my strongest village read. Not helping  (Also: I think this is a me problem, but I don't like how Striker words his vote statements. Ever. Regardless of alignment. The whole 'bad vibes because of x, feels like x' thing. Totally a me problem don't feel obligated to change it xD)

Post covering the above points.

-----Sidenote(s): Maill seemed ignorant about how hard I was pushing Striker = evil. Unsure about that. Also, Bard votes Ash and this picks up my goodness. Second time Bard's vote has distracted from Striker. Around here Illwei also says that Striker/Maill might be e/e because Maill had been sussing Illwei and then constructed a team around Striker, and Illwei said that felt like distancing.

I'll finish it around here because I've about caught up. Worthy of note: When Striker voted Tani, it felt out of the blue to me. He said he's most sus of Maill and Tani out of the voters of him, which I read as possible distancing because I sussed both of them already and they've linked to him. 

Not gonna TL;DR right now. Too burned out, this took too long :/

[---]

if you think that I'm actually going to click those links to see the quotes then you'd be wrong

[Young Bard he/him]

Ugh. I started doing an analysis post on several different players, but then I clicked "See new replies" and my post got snaffled, and now I'm really annoyed. Anyway, have some RP, analysis post should come tonight, probably.

---

So, Lasalen hadn't been one of the murderers. Disappointing. If it got out that Thiriel had assisted in Lasalen's death, only for them to be innocent, it would be a major dent in his plans. Still, there had been plenty of people there that day. There was very little to cause anyone to point blame at Thiriel himself.

There were rumours swirling about town, of figures snooping about at night carrying spikes, or a herd of koloss heading for the town. Superstitious nonsense, all of it, Thiriel was sure. In the span of a couple, short weeks, the once-friendly quiet village had transformed itself. Was it really only two weeks ago that no-one locked their doors at night? That they would smile at each other on the street and exchange a friendly word, instead of scowling at each other with wild, baggy eyes, seeing monsters where once they saw friends? Some would say it was sad to see how little the village spirit seemed to count for in this time of crisis, how awful that these innocent folk could be brought so low so quickly.

But Thiriel would say it was an opportunity. People, in the midst of paranoia, were easy to manipulate. With a few soft words here, a gentle nudge there, and it would be so easy to get them dancing to whatever tune Thiriel set. Oh, Thiriel was sure they'd find their murderers. But if a couple other innocent bystanders who stood in Thiriel's way were unfortunately attacked in the process, would they really be missed?

Thiriel entered the bar and asked Sara for a drink. There were a few people there, but not enough to be overcrowded in particular. Thiriel made some small-talk with a couple of them as he steadily drank down his glass.

It was only as he was draining the last dregs out of the that he did what he came for. "You know, Sara, Roseanna has been unusually quiet lately. It seems she's hardly left her room these past few days - I saw her come out one time, looking almost sickly - then she fled back indoors almost immediately, as though she were hiding herself away from everyone else." He paused, just for a moment, to let those words sink in - he noted without turning his head that the others seemed to be listening. "They say hiding secrets can do that to a person." Another pause. Then Thiriel shook his head. "Still, I'm sure it's nothing, I'm just letting my mind wonder away with me. I should really probably be going."

( @Biplet @Burnt Spaghetti )

[Mat he/him]

9 minutes ago, Illwei said:

if you think that I'm actually going to click those links to see the quotes then you'd be wrong

I didn't expect you to :P.

I thought Exp's vote was fine until I read Maill's comment. Now I don't like it :P. 

Pretty happy all those ninja's were mostly :thonk:s though. 

Something else... Oh! Don't like the Pyro train. There's nothing really behind it.

Edited March 3, 2021 by Matrim's Dice

[---]

so biplet has successfuly taught her my ways

[Mat he/him]

Just now, Illwei said:

so biplet has successfuly taught her my ways

Taught... her... your? ways?

[---]

1 minute ago, Matrim's Dice said:

Taught... her... your? ways?

:|

*couch*

Biplet. Has. successfully taught me. her. ways.

...

:D.

Edited March 3, 2021 by Illwei

[Ashbringer he/him]

Pretty sure Pyro got voted out D2 (well, C2 because Quick Fix) the last game he played... but it would make my vote mean something... grrrrrrr.

[Biplet she/her]

18 minutes ago, Young Bard said:

It was only as he was draining the last dregs out of the that he did what he came for. "You know, Sara, Roseanna has been unusually quiet lately. It seems she's hardly left her room these past few days - I saw her come out one time, looking almost sickly - then she fled back indoors almost immediately, as though she were hiding herself away from everyone else." He paused, just for a moment, to let those words sink in - he noted without turning his head that the others seemed to be listening. "They say hiding secrets can do that to a person." Another pause. Then Thiriel shook his head. "Still, I'm sure it's nothing, I'm just letting my mind wonder away with me. I should really probably be going."

Talk to him!

Sara pushed the thought away. Better to listen. The other patrons leaned in too, closer and closer. She tapped the counter nervously, beneath the rim where the groove rested, formed by her tapping over so many years. She'd found the motion helped her focus.

You own this place now. You can talk to people, you know?

She knew.

"You don't say?"

[Mailliw73 he/him]

35 minutes ago, Matrim's Dice said:

I didn't expect you to :P.

I thought Exp's vote was fine until I read Maill's comment. Now I don't like it :P. 

Don’t like my post or Exp’s vote or both? 

[Mat he/him]

2 minutes ago, Mailliw73 said:

Don’t like my post or Exp’s vote or both? 

Exp's vote. Course, I'm not in the PM  But I'm inclined to think you described it as it was.

[Mailliw73 he/him]

1 minute ago, Matrim's Dice said:

Exp's vote. Course, I'm not in the PM  But I'm inclined to think you described it as it was.

Oh yes. Gotcha. It’s exactly (without c/ping) what the PM was. 

[Mat he/him]

Vote count before I leave for the night. Totally not just to double check I have it right.

• Striker (6): Mat, Supreme, Maill, Quinn, Tani, Biplet
• Pyro (3): Araris, Illwei, Striker
• Ash (2): Bard, Stick
• Gears (1): TJ
• TUO (1): Ash
• Maill (1): Exp

I'll be back before rollover.