Roleplay Mafia Minigame ❧ NIGHT SIX

After recovering from the initial shock of Sayaka's words, Kyouko turned her attention back to the people near her. She felt like someone was staring at her oddly.

Mummy boy was talking to Amethyst about..getting along again.

Aw. He is either really good at acting or he's just genuinely pure. ((SO PRECIOUS. OMG.))

And now he was proposing that they help her find her attacker. Kyouko's eyes twitched some more as she realized that her face was getting a bit hot. 'Ugh....c-cute--no. No! NO.' Mentally slapping herself, she tried her best to regain her composure.

"No. I hate kids. I hate them. ...I do.'

Kyouko didn't like it, but the truth was that she'd never find out anything by herself. She'd have to cooperate with the others, mingle with the crowd, maybe even gain an ounce of their trust, enough for them to answer her questions freely so she'd have some information to work with. Some of them seemed okay too. She didn't believe that all of them were killers, so it didn't hurt to socialize...just a bit.

Plastering her usual grin on her face, she turned around and offered Amethyst some pocky.. Her look was mischievous, suggesting, 'Sure, let's hate each other. But work with me here, yeah?'

"What I did last night was went to the inn, and slept in a real bed. Do you know what is like sleeping on the ground with rocks and glass for months on end after being accidental teleported across the world? It's a pain in the back. We didn't always had money for an inn, and some of the inns were so bad, that sleeping on the ground better... I'm never going to sleep on the ground again."

Luke then blushed and as he tried to get his hair untangled.

"As for this morning... I got lost while exploring. I never been alone in a town before. Well, since I lost my memories, and when Tear was taking me home, she never left my side. I sort of understand since, I even understood what money was at the time. After all, my parents never let me leave the house most of my life..."

He stopped, feeling like he was talking to much. He took in a breath then looked around.

"Also, I don't want to think that one of us is the person that hurt Kyouko. But I think you are the most weird with your talking out loud and everything, and think we should lock you up with the dalmatians until we find the feather."

As he spoke his last line, he stared at Soren.

_______________
((Darn it... I'm going to relisten to all of Welcome to Nightvale. Also work is acting mean and scheduling me for 6 days of week, and today I was worked about 3 hours longer then the schedule. Luke VOTEs: Soren for getting locked up somewhere until the end of the game.))

(( thANK;;; sorry am bad at this ))

She didn't realize she'd been shaking until Amumu's voice broke her out of her trance-like state. She'd been trying to figure out how she -- the youngest of the Crystal Gems besides Steven, easily the weakest including Steven, nothing more than a huge mistake playing at being important -- would be able to face off against two... ostensibly trained Homeworld gems. All by herself.

But at the little mummy's voice and reassurance, at the red one's gesture of... well, at her offering of a ceasefire, at the very least- she straightened and hesitantly reached for one of the sticks of... whatever food Coco was offering.

"You... eat, too, then? Thought most gems didn't like it." she asked, wary, as the entire stick of pocky disappeared into her mouth. She licked her lips and eyed the box still offered her.

(( she'll vote at some point today gomen ))

panpanpandy wrote:(( thANK;;; sorry am bad at this ))

((No worries! Also, saw Steven Universe for the first time yesterday. Two things:

• Amethyst sounds a lot different than I imagined
  
• I need more of this. Two 11 minute bits were not enough.))
  

"I am intimately familiar with sleeping on the ground, yes. I've probably done it far more then you have, particularly since your pretty obviously pampered royalty of some sort from how you speak and act. And extremely sheltered too." Soren spoke calmly in return, not at all phased at Luke complaining of the ground.

"I see. So your used to people holding your hand and helping guide you along like a lost puppy, then. I imagine your claimed amnesia had something to do with your parents being so  overbearingly protective."

Soren rose a eyebrow when he was voted for, sighing at needing to repeat himself yet again, but knowing that Luke hadn't been there.

"As I told everyone earlier... If I had targeted Kyouko, she would be dead. I NEVER fail to kill someone when I've set my mind to it. My wind magic would shatter any protection I use it against. But who else would've attacked the girl? Or could've? One of those dalmatians you mentioned?" Soren spoke calmly enough even if his tone led a bit into sarcasm, giving Luke a stare in return.

“Okay! Okay,” Carlos said, holding his hands up in a defensive spread, as if entertaining the idea that Sayaka's sword wasn't just for show. “It'll take some time for me to figure out an experiment and even more time to actually run it but, well, considering time isn't real... And you know, maybe none of this is real.

“This place.

“You. Me.”

You.

... you... real...

Sayaka managed a weak nod and staggered off away from Carlos, away from Cecil, Wilbur, the radio tower, and even away from Kyouko and the first district. She plugged along into the shadows of a small alley just a little ways off, the folded darkness broken only by jittery, glowing signs. She couldn't read the signs, not that she cared enough to even try. The glyphs and marks came from languages that, like everything else, may as well not even exist to her reality. Not that much of one seemed to remain.

Kyouko, when did I become like this? How many times now...

The more she walked, the more she hunched her shoulders, and her cape dragged against her back. She studied the cobblestones beneath her feet, her bangs hanging low enough to swing into her eyes, but she couldn't care enough to swat them back. In the darkness of the alley, even the white of her cloak, her boots, her gloves—they were all charcoal black.

I can't remember what was so important.

She was tired of this. Tired of swinging from despair, to hope, only back to despair. Sayaka couldn't even remember what had caused these feelings, these emotions. Traverse Town was like a black hole that sucked her in one piece at a time, stretching her to her limits, and then light would appear on the horizon and she'd try to swim towards it, instead only falling deeper into the darkness.

She shook her head.

Where even am I right now?

Carlos had, yet again, seemed like a good lead, just as trying to converse with Cecil had seemed good at the time. But in their presence... she felt a strange weirdness, like some fundamental piece of the puzzle that was the universe had been lost or discarded. She pressed her palms into her forehead and stared ahead.

“I have no idea what I was even saying before.”

She needed Carlos—she knew that. She needed him to save Kyouko, and she probably needed Cecil as well. She needed Amumu, and maybe even Amethyst, despite her reservations. That left two others: Luke and Soren. Sayaka did not know how to process those two just yet.

Sayaka knew one other thing, too: She knew that her soul gem's corruption had taken its toll. This, above all else—even Kyouko's brush with death—threatened her resolve. So many times since this hunt for the feather had begun had she felt the need to quit and surrender. This was not like her. Kyouko could not see her like this.

Sayaka turned back around, this time with the crescent gem at her navel shining as a lone light in the darkness. She made her way back into the square of the first district, her eyes on Carlos once more. It had not been time enough for “something” as he had promised, but there was one other thing that he could yet do.

“Carlos,” Sayaka said, this time with clear mind and even breath. “I heard Cecil read off your analysis earlier. I would like to know what you think of Soren and Luke.”

And then she bit her lip, hesitated, and spoke again.

“I mean—Carlos. I heard precious Cecil read off your scientific observations earlier. Have you given more scientific thought to test subject Soren and test subject Luke?”

Sayaka returned earlier than expected. Or, well. What with time and all.

In any case, science was a delicate art that required forethought and preparations, and a lot more “hmm”ing and measuring than the average non-scientist was used to. He could understand impatience in life-threatening situations. He himself had experienced impatience in the past, and also life-threatening situations, and sometimes impatience and life-threatening situations both at once. But in all situations, life-threatening or otherwise, science just wasn’t something to be rushed.

He opened his mouth to explain this in as many words, or rather in those exact set of words, and was promptly interrupted.

“Carlos, I heard Cecil read off your analysis earlier. I would like to know what you think of Soren and Luke. ...I mean—Carlos. I heard precious Cecil read off your scientific observations earlier. Have you given more scientific thought to test subject Soren and test subject Luke?”

The scientist frowned. Cecil might have called it a noble look of consternation. Everyone else would probably have called it pouting. “You know, you don’t have to phrase it like that. I was perfectly capable of understanding you the first time.”

But he could forgive that. She was asking for his scientific opinion, and what was a scientist if not someone imbued with scientific opinions to be asked for?

“Hmm… Soren and Luke… Hold on, let me check my notes.” He withdrew the Totally Not a Cluedo Sheet from his lab coat pocket to refresh his memory. “Okay, I have that Soren claims to be able to pierce all defenses with his attacks, and… I have nothing on Luke. Nothing scientifically relevant, anyway; there are a lot of observations one could make about Luke. For example, he appears to be human, and has features common to many other humans, such as two arms, a face, fingernails--”

Upon seeing the look Sayaka was giving him, he cleared his throat. “Er, right. Okay.” He folded and unfolded the Totally Not a Cluedo Sheet idly between his fingers as he tried to come to any statistically meaningful conclusions. “I mean, I’m still not taking sides here, as science and scientists do not take sides, but speaking from a, you know, a murder mystery dinner theater point of view…” He shrugged helplessly. “Soren gave a defense and Luke hasn’t yet, so I don’t know what we can say. You can’t figure out whodunnit until you have all the evidence on the table, that’s just how murder mysteries work. And then once everyone’s said their piece, then you can go, Aha! It was the butler all along! but not before that, or else the whole story wouldn’t make sense.”

Sayaka waited for Carlos to answer, her head tilted in expectation. As per usual, Carlos elected to babble out a disjointed reply that sauntered about in every which direction before finally arriving at the heart of the matter: Soren and Luke.

“—speaking from a, you know, a murder mystery dinner theater point of view...” he began, if anything he said could ever be considered a beginning, “Soren gave a defense and Luke hasn't yet, so I don't know what we can say. You can't figure out whodunnit until you have all the evidence on the table. That's just how murder mysteries work.”

A murder mystery with no murder, Sayaka thought.

“We are lacking evidence,” Sayaka agreed. “I have some theories of my own, but...” And she sighed. “Carlos, I just want—no, I need to know how your science works in order to piece it all together. Anything! Any explanation for it at all.”

---

(( Fair and just and beautiful Kiyoko, goddess of reason and logic and science and all that is good, please shine your light unto me; please, if not for me then for others that are almost like me but not as blue and stabby; please, tell us how your science works. ;_; ))

“Umm, well, I didn’t spend years in college studying something that could be explained in just one sentence… but I suppose if I had to explain it one sentence, I’d say… So, you have an experiment, right? And as part of that experiment you come up with a hypothesis, and then you run the experiment, and then science tells you yes or no. That’s, scientifically speaking, how science works. Oh, and then you publish your research results to get tenure, that is also part of what it means to be a scientist.”

That was not just one sentence, but then, Carlos was a scientist, not a mathematician.

---

(( And now the post that Luxaria has been waiting for from me THE ENTIRE GAME.

Basically, once a phase, Carlos can ask an experimental question and get a yes or no answer from the host laws of nature. I can’t, however, ask about specific players (as Carlos is a scientist, not an anthropologist), and I can’t ask about alignments. Which more or less leaves just roles and in-game events or mechanics.

Also I am apparently allowed to ask about specific characters if that specific character is Cecil, I phrase it in a very roundabout way, and I am asking about omelettes. But that is neither here nor there.

I do have to publish my results accurately in thread in bold in order for it to count towards my win condition, but since I’ve now received my win condition, I don’t actually need to publish my results anymore. I’ll assert that any research results I publish from now on will be accurate, but you’d all have to take my word for it. You’re taking my word for it, anyway.

So as for whether I’m a town-leaning or maf-leaning neutral, I’m neither. I am Cecil-preservation-leaning, so whichever side agrees to keep Cecil alive is the side I will help, which will hopefully be both sides for now.

Today's proverb: If music be the food of love, then I'd like a music with bacon and extra fries. And maybe a diet coke. ))

“So, you have an experiment, right?” Carlos said. “And as part of that experiment you come up with a hypothesis, and then you run the experiment, and then science tells you yes or no. That's, scientifically speaking, how science works.”

And just like that, everything Carlos had been saying for the past few hours or minutes all made sense.

“Thank you, Carlos,” Sayaka said in a rush, preempting him from starting on another of his wayward monologues. “Can I look at that paper?”

Sayaka leaned over Carlos and got a glance at the Totally-Not-A-Cluedo-Sheet.

“Hmm,” Sayaka wondered aloud. “There's some interesting information hidden in your notes.

“From Cecil's Intern Wilbur, we know for a fact that Amumu was the one that prevented Amethyst from moving at all last night. We do not know what Amethyst would have done if Amumu had not intervened, however we do know that Amumu could not have possibly gone near Kyouko.”

Sayaka chewed her lip.

“I did wonder at first if there... Carlos, I know this is a bit of a scientific leap, but I did think that there was a chance that Amumu and someone else might be... let's call them feather-deniers. There's some weird tensions down in that group, and the actions of last night say to me that someone clearly does not want us to locate this feather—which makes sense, since it is so powerful.”

Sayaka tore her gaze from the paper to look at Amumu, then to Amethyst, then back to the paper.

“I wondered if it might have been possible that Amumu and Amethyst had a secret alliance. In other words, I thought they might incapacitate Amethyst so no one would suspect her while Amumu went to attack someone else that they, as deniers, had chosen together.. but we know that Amumu could not have gone near Kyouko.

“This brings up another possibility,” Sayaka said. “What if there are people in the group that aren't feather-deniers... but they are suspicious of their existence like we are. And... and what if these people can attack, even kill others of our group?

“One of them might have attacked Kyouko.”

Sayaka shook her head.

“Soren's very statement,” and Sayaka pointed at his name on the Not-A-Cluedo, “says that he has an ability that can do just this: Kill anyone he wants. What's to say that others do not have this ability? Someone might have attacked Kyouko instead of a denier... but if that's the case...

“Then Amethyst has to be a denier.”

Sayaka clapped her hands together.

“I refuse to believe that the deniers would waste any opportunity to thin our numbers discretely. I see two possibilities, Carlos,” Sayaka said with excitement. “Either we have Amethyst and probably someone else working together to thwart our search for the feather, and someone that wasn't a denier tried to attack Kyouko, or Amethyst is not a denier and the real deniers are still at large.”

Sayaka started pacing, sweat on her brow.

“Carlos, this means several things for us. I originally asked about whether or not you could determine—through science, of course—how many other people within the group could attack, even kill another person. But there may be another way: A thought experiment.

“We ask the others of the group whether or not any of them attacked Kyouko. Should someone come forward, Amethyst is thus framed as a denier, because otherwise how else would there be only one person attacked earlier? Amethyst was stunned. There's the possibility of a denier saying that they did the attack as someone that isn't a denier in an attempt to frame Amethyst, but that is unnecessary,” Sayaka concluded.

“If someone that wasn't a denier had attacked Kyouko, they would have said so already, because then we'd known both they, Amumu, and Kyouko were innocent, and Amethyst was a denier. But... no one did, and so this can mean only one thing...

“A denier attacked Kyouko.”

“Amumu could not have done it. Amethyst could not have done it. I would say it's safe to assume Kyouko would not have done it...”

Sayaka took a deep breath.

“And I could not have done it. I cannot hurt Kyouko."

“That means the deniers can be several people... Soren, Luke, or...”

Sayaka looked at Cecil, and then Carlos.

“Cecil.”

Sayaka took a step forward towards Carlos and handed him back the sheet.

“This is a bold plan, and I may be missing some variables. I'll allow for that, Carlos, but do you remember my sword? My science sword?”

Sayaka pulled it free of the confines of her cloak. It glimmered in the light.

“I will use this sword to kill Cecil unless you prove his innocence to me, be it either your experiment or one of my suggestion. I know that science takes time, so in the meanwhile I will turn my efforts to seeing that Soren or Luke is evicted from the group. The deniers lurk in that group of three, Carlos, and I hope your Cecil is not one of them.”

---

((Okay. I said a lot of things here. Let me break it down:

Because no vigilante stepped forward to reveal that they were the ones that attacked Kyouko, it instantly clears Kyouko, Amethyst, and Amumu of being mafia. I can run through the logic again and it explain it if anyone wants to see it better or try and poke holes, but basically:

1. There was only one attack.

2. Amethyst did not do this attack, nor did Amumu.

3. The pairing cannot be Amumu/Amethyst, Amumu/Kyouko, or Amethyst/Kyouko.

4. If either Kyouko or Amethyst were mafia, then they would have had an attack of their own, except Amethyst got stunned. This means that a vigilante would've tried to shoot Kyouko. But since NO ONE stepped forward IMMEDIATELY to reveal that they attacked Kyouko, that instantly clears those three.

5. I did not and cannot attack Kyouko. You have no reason to believe me, but it's the truth.

6. This leaves Soren, Luke, and Cecil. Carlos can run a test to prove Cecil's innocence, but he may very well lie to us.

7. Even if there is no save tonight, or Soren is mafia and actually has that kill-all ability, or we mislynch, we're still at a numbers advantage, and the multiple deaths will help you to narrow down which of those three targets are mafia.

8. Those three targets might have any number of roles I might not be accounting for. They could be lynchproof, bulletproof, or both. They could have a revenge role—Carlos might even have one as well. In fact, Carlos might be a vigilante and attacked Kyouko. This is a very real possibility, however unlikely, but it's the one variable that could mean everything I just said is wrong. He might have attacked Kyouko. There's also a chance Amethyst might still be able to attack while stunned. I don't know what roles Alca has engineered for this game.

9. I'm basically going all-in by revealing my ability and I run a very real chance of just mislynching, dying outright, or screwing the whole group. I take full responsibility.

10. Basically, we know who four town are out of three. We can claim our abilities and combine them to win this game in a phase or two. For now, I am doing a Vote: Soren just to push the phase, but I am willing to switch it to Luke if we think that is best. I think our lynches have to be concentrated on those three.

11. Also, you can probably just assume the important bits of my speech were caught by the radio tower's microphone, if you're concerned about IC excuses.

12. Lastly, sorry for this mega post. Please, if anyone sees faults in my logic or analysis, let me know. I could very well be missing something. ))

Soren sighed and rubbed his face, feeling like they were getting nowhere fast. He blinked in hearing Sayaka's voice, listening to the explanation and her view point.

He nodded slowly along to it up until the point she brought up Cecil might be one of the "feather deniers", shaking his head and goign to talk to her, not being at all appreciative of the blackmail attempt she was aiming at a man that seemed to be quite focused on science.

"Apparently you haven't been listening, Sayaka. As I have said multiple times I did not attack Kyouko or do anything of particular interest last night."


((I am a one-shot vig that can kill anyone regardless of any protection that they may have due to Soren having a skill called Adept in the games he is from. Which is why I did not act last night since I had no solid feelings on anyone being mafia, and did not want to waste my power or risk hitting a town member. If I had attacked Kyouko, she'd be dead since whatever kicked in to save her would've been pierced/ignored.

Vote: Luke
If something else comes up I'll be willing to change my vote.))

This was the kind of blackmail Carlos used to, which, now that he was experiencing it, did not at all feel as homey and familiar as he was hoping it might.

“Okay, I was already barely following that but I’m pretty sure I stopped paying attention somewhere around the words ‘kill Cecil,’ which I’m pretty sure I misheard because I can’t think of any arrangement of the trillions of atoms in this universe where those words would ever be okay.” And maybe his voice cracked just a little bit at the end, but even scientists are allowed to let their composure slip when confronted with a person with a sword threatening to kill the scientist’s radio host boyfriend with aforementioned sword.

But scientists were also trained to respond to adversity with, if not rational calm, at least some level of moderately-rational hysteria. And so Carlos took a deep breath.

“You’re forgetting that Amumu only has an alibi if we trust the words of the wonderful man you are currently waving a weapon at. And you know, I don’t know what it’s like where you come from, but where I come from, the best way to prove that you’re not a murderer is not to go around threatening to murder people--” And then he had to pause there, because actually, that’s exactly how not-murderers argued their innocence in Night Vale. He shook his head, and resumed on a different line of reasoning. “And also your assumptions aren't scientifically sound,” he concluded, which seemed to sum up everything he wanted to say in a lot less words than he’d intended to say it.

---

(( Couldn’t figure out how to say this all ICly but I’ll only respond to the parts of your post that are relevant to defending Cecil because Carlos doesn’t really care about the rest of you guys.

Cecil is a tracker who broadcasts his investigation to the entire thread upon rollover. This is usually a town ability as it has zero benefits to mafia whatsoever. But let’s pretend it’s a mafia ability for a moment. If it’s a mafia ability, you don’t want to use it to clear a townie from sending the NK. So what you’d do is send in the NK and use the ability to track your mafia partner who is not sending the NK to prove to the thread that they did not send the NK. If for whatever reason, you were mafia and you were tracking town, you would probably not then post a clarification post saying, “Nope, Amumu didn’t send in the NK, so he’s clear.” Additionally, the accuracy of Cecil’s broadcast was corroborated by Amumu who claimed the stun, which, if it was a false report, Cecil couldn’t have known ahead of time unless Amumu was his mafia partner.

So tl;dr, if Cecil is maf then Amumu is the other maf because a maf Cecil/town Amumu doesn’t make sense.

I think you’re also neglecting the possibilities that:

1. Amethyst is maf, but the other maf was the one who sent in the NK this time.
2. Amumu is maf, but the other maf was the one who sent in the NK this time.
3. Kyouko is maf and bulletproof and targeted herself in misdirection. Which isn’t hugely likely, but I’ve actually done this multiple times as bulletproof mafia. Actually, I’ve done this every time I’m bulletproof mafia. It’s very fun.
4. The NK was blocked or not sent in, and the kill was the result of other actions interacting (e.g. someone who reflects kills or has a passive revenge kill mechanic)
5. There is a town vigilante with plenty of reason not to step forward.
6. You are maf.

Okay sorry for the not-so-neutral interruption. Back to your usual maf-related activities. ))