((@ Amumu and Cecil: I loved the N4 roleplay shenanigans. Even if you defended the scummiest mafia ever for forever tried your hardest, it's pretty sad to see Amumu's only friend vanish on him. And I loved the radio narration. That meta sponsor.))
At some point or another, Sayaka discovered that she lost track of time. She had not lost track of it in the typical sense of the phrase, where the hours slip by, and one moment she realized she was in a place other than where she meant to be. No, Sayaka had lost it in a physical sense, if time were considered a corporeal thing that she could pick up and place on a shelf and observe at her leisure.
It felt so long ago, now, but once she had been able to wake up on a new day, get dressed, have breakfast, dash off to school, go to her classes, meet up with friends, come home, eat dinner, do her homework, slip into bed, and find time somewhere in all of that to assume puella magi and defend the innocent—you know, a typical middle-school girl's daily schedule. Each day had its structure and fit into the same window of a roughly sixteen to eighteen hour span. This did not change. Sayaka knew it, the clock by her bed knew it, the world knew it, and even the sun and moon sailing through the sky seemed to know it. Precise and definite with no deviation, uncertainty, confusion, or variance.
But, Sayaka had lost that.
She did not know at what exact point she had lost time. Either before or perhaps a little after she walked into the square of the first district, she noticed a creeping sense of déjà vu. She took the same steps into the square, stood in the same spot, and everyone she seemed to know was there. She could not fully recall how long she had known these people (other than Kyouko, of course), but she knew she saw them... yesterday, if there were such a thing under a sky of eternal night. She remembered talking with them and engaging in a short and stunted discussion about...
She turned her head to a spot beyond Kyouko to Soren's left.
It was empty.
Luke was gone.
Sayaka stared at the place where Luke had usually stood, and the nature of “yesterday's” conversation returned to her. She and others had singled out Luke, as she did most days, and the group had voted against his inclusion and sent him away. He had been... one of those uncouth individuals determined to thwart the group's attempts to locate the feather. They voted, he left, and all at once her memories of intervening time between meetings peeled back and Sayaka could not quite remember what had happened, as if she had been ripped out of space-time and plopped back down into this square once again. As if she had... lost... time.
Sayaka shook her head, dizzied. She could not quite make sense of the bizarre circumstances, but she could understand one thing: Luke was gone, but an ally of his remained. Yes, that sounded right. Her quest was not yet over; she could not slack in defending Kyouko and the rest of her allies.
Sayaka listened and waited for the others to exchange a few comments. Then, she offered some of her own.
“I do not know what exactly to think of this right now,” Sayaka said. “I think... I think the circumstances are too tricky to pin down. But... but I have some ideas.”
She brushed her hair back.
“I think I remember hearing that everyone has been rejuvenated—refreshed. Amumu, does this mean that you could form a bond with someone again?” She glanced at Cecil, but redirected her gaze back to Soren. “And you can now, too.”
She thought for a moment, looking at the other members of the group in turn. Amumu had prevented Cecil from moving during the night. This meant that Wilbur hadn't been able to scout anyone out, but it also... made Cecil look very bad, because the last denier had not attacked either—whether or not that last denier was Cecil, or someone trying to frame Cecil. But...
“Amumu,” Sayaka said, but she addressed him in a gentle voice. “I know it must be hard to lose a friend, but we're all here for you. And, you know, I have an idea!” She looked at Kyouko with a grin. “Why not befriend Kyouko? You two seem to get along.”
She looked at Soren.
“And I think you should form a bond with Cecil, Soren. If he's actually as suspicious as last night makes him out to be, learning more about him would be beneficial.”
((So, I still agree with Soren's outlined thoughts. I'm very hesitant to engage in any course of action because it's in the mafia's best interests to guide us into a mislynch. We simply have too many powerful roles and abilities for them to risk showing their hand. This is why I at first thought of having us do a No Lynch to play a game of chicken. If you follow:
1. If Cecil was mafia and got blocked last night, now he's going to be hesitant to attack because the suspicion is completely on him. If Amumu stunned someone else and suddenly there's an attack, he looks suspicious.
2. If Cecil is actually town and a mafia is implicating him, they have to be careful. If the mafia isn't Amumu, the mafia has no way of knowing when Amumu won't stun Cecil (However, mafia had no reason to suspect that Amumu would stun; he hadn't the day before). If the mafia isn't Cecil, they gain nothing from killing him since it immediately eliminates him as a suspicious target... and killing Amumu does the same, since Amumu is the only one that knew he'd stun Cecil, and so he could've elected not to send in the NK. This means mafia has to target either myself, Kyouko, or Soren. If mafia is Kyouko or Soren, they could be baiting out my protection, but then trying to kill me makes it severely obvious who might be mafia. Additionally, the two people most capable of killing me, if either are mafia, cannot safely eliminate me because then it immediately implicates themselves.
3. Amumu being mafia is tricky. He's the only one that's actively defended Luke, even with Luke being extremely scummy to everyone else. That said, it's not uncharacteristic of him since he has done it all game long. There's still a link there. If Amumu were mafia, he's in an awkward situation where he cannot afford to suddenly go, “Oh, yeah, Luke is totally mafia.” because that makes him suspicious. But then stunning the only person that gives information is a giant question mark to me. He cites that Cecil was framing him... but that was earlier in the game when we didn't know the mafia targets, back when they were Amethyst/Luke. Once it was Luke/???, he went for Kyouko. Mafia did not act on this night, for reasons I'm kind of considering (it'd make sense if Amumu did not act because he had been followed every night prior to this). Thus, Amumu's reasoning for stunning Cecil last night is very... flimsy, in my opinion, but it doesn't necessarily mean he's mafia.
Again, this falls into the mind-game component, since as Soren pointed out, the last mafia might be trying to implicate others by avoiding a NK. We already saw them do that the night before. This is the main reason why I'm really, really hesitant to do any voting (at least early in the phase) because us trying to make sense of actions from last night runs a greater risk of us just lynching town, whereas no-lynching gives us a strong chance of forcing the mafia to either get tracked (if they're not Cecil), confirm the suspicions on themself (if they are Cecil), or give up the ruse (if they're neither Amumu/Cecil), or even hitting the Wrath of God.
Which brings me to another point, and the main one I made IC.
Here's one test I'm considering having us do:
Amumu bonds with Kyouko.
Soren bonds with Cecil.
Both of you type your entire set of role abilities, and then the entire set of role abilities of your new friend. You can do it IC, but clarify word-for-word OOC (so we avoid more of the situation we had with Luke).
There's only one mafia. It's in town's best interests to be 100% truthful with both sets, because if the mafia lies, well there you go. But as a result, the mafia can't lie now. I have a special reason for doing this, but I have to ask you to trust me. The reason I am not including myself is because there's an ace I have that I wish to use on the mafia this game. If anyone doubts my alignment, we could resolve to have Cecil track me each night; since both of us cannot be mafia, we cannot collude to work around this. I would, ideally, rather use this ability on someone else, since I have a better plan in mind... but I'll speak more of that later.
The only risk with this strategy is that it reveals information on three of the town for the remaining mafia. But... I think I can make it worthwhile, if my plan works as I think it will.
What do you guys think?))
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