The Syndicate

Time to announce to MVP results, everyone. At least from my point of view, I think it was an exciting experience overall, especially the mid-cycle bowl of suspicions and speculations, and I would once again like to express my gratitude to you all for playing this. If there is any other feedback, I welcome it in private or otherwise.

And, now, the result for Best Host, in which nobody voted for or knew they were supposed to goes tooooo

Spoiler: show

And the results for MVP. Seven votes were expressed, besides my own, and as expected, it was a close friendly brawl for admiration and recognition between our two victorious power roles. But the one who gets the crown iiiiisss

Spoiler: show

Congratulations on this well deserved prize, you are now eligible to play the All-Star-Heist-Whatever-Whenever-Tournament! And congratulations to the Other-Power-Role for an equally great performance.

Cheers. Over and out.

Metalmarsh89 wrote:
Ricochet wrote:
Metalmarsh89 wrote:
Tisk tisk.
What's that for?
It was a joke, since Golden and I hosted a heist game with 6 power roles. :P

You hosted a heist game with completely inverted forces, I'd say that's the more important aspect of it.

Don't forget to vote for MVP via PM, if you haven't. I'll announce it tomorrow.

Metalmarsh89 wrote:
Tisk tisk.

What's that for?

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:Perhaps the single moment that most favored town was when G-Man's role was revealed without him dying. That essentially removed him from the suspect pool, and Spacedaisy with him. The only angle the mafia had left late in the game to try and get out of trouble was to perpetuate the paranoia that G-Man might be bad.

Well it was technically further luck for you guys, because I had to randomise between "role reveal" and "quirk reveal", then between "cop", "doc" and "Reaper". Came out that way. Plus, I get what you're saying, but I had no vibe of any civ reaaally believing the G-Man is bad angle.

G-Man wrote:But was Eloh the one who submitted the team's nightly kill as the Godfather until she died or did they function as a hive-mind on the kills?

If the latter, would their kill have been preventable at all before it was down to just rabbit? If so, please explain how. With a few heist games in queue the idea of a decentralized baddie team intrigues me.

Elohcin was not Godfather (because I thought the idea of you getting corrupted reads and getting a civ read on the Godfather would either not really function - as in why make an exception for that role - or mess with town too much). The night kill was team decided and any of them could have written down or send me the final decision, but a member had to be nominated as performing the killer, due to the Doc happening to also be a blocker.

Don't understand your question re:rabbit, tho. The whack Doc never matched with one of them performing the kill or with their victim choices.

link: The BTSC discussion didn't matter. Their final "X is to kill Y" decision did. If X would have been blocked, the kill attempt would have been thwarted, yes.

So, upon having all the data, would you say this game had 3 power roles or 4? To be honest, once I introduced the Reaper/indy into the design, I settled for the idea that I'm expanding it past the 3 PR rule, but during the game, Day 4 mostly, when asked, I had to imply that the game stays grounded, as to not drive the civs paranoid (I think Quin had come up with up to 5 or 6 roles in total

). Still, I stand by what I replied to G-Man, actually: I don't see how "surviving the game" or "needing to achieve a win con" is a literal ability/power role, despite that the Survivor is a traditional third party "role". Then again, if you count The Reaper as a power role, Elohcin was basically vanilla as long as she did not send any action, so, in a way, it was still closer to not exceeding the limit.

Plus, and I couldn't actually consult with JJJ (since he had signed up) or any balance maestro (mostly for not wanting to spoil my setup to anyone else

), but I don't think I found an actual logical balance in setting the civ power roles on "paranoid" and coming up with the mafia leader's gimmick. It was more improv, really. The latter was in fact inspired by a fully Paranoia-designed game on Mafiascum I stumbled upon in my searches, which had a Paranoid Godfather who was led to believe there'd be an Usurper or such in his team (but he, just like Elohcin, also chose to ignore it and trust his team)... but that was pretty much all I could come up with. I did judge that any "beneficial" mafia power (Godfather, Strongman, Blocker) role would be too advantageous for the mafia side, given that the Cop could get fooled by his reads without even knowing it, so basic level in my design was all three mafiosos being vanilla. Then I thought the paranoid mafia leader thing might in principle create some disadvantage for mafia, just like the paranoid civ roles were already creating possible disadvantage for the civilians... hence even out.

I did post a question on EpicMafia's reddit about what mafia power role I could use if I were to paranoid the cop and doc, but they replied, "yeah just use cop and nerf the doctor", which was uhm ok, not helpful.

^Ooh, that makes sense now.

And I do remember that quote now, but thought you just realised G-Man is copclaiming and wanted him not to expose himself so hard. Interesting actual purpose.

D-did you understand the fear factor the other way around? :o It wasn't a win condition... it was a win canceller. You were meant to fight against it. If you misunderstood that, then it's no wonder you poked JJJ so much to vote you - I thought you were mad.

Anyway, I'm glad you joined to play and gave me the incentive to mess around with the theme and the "Silencio" ruse, after Epignosis mentioned it in the sign-ups. I've improvised like 80% of what I've written, as the game took shape and went along.

And ah yes, my literature tutor told me I was verbose back in 12th grade... guess I failed her.

DrWilgy wrote:Strats that worked: Pointing out that Gman was the cop to verify JJJ's alignment.

Don't recall that.

DrWilgy wrote: Strats that failed horribly: trying to get Gman to say a fake green peek on either Quin or Epi to give me cover (had Gman done so I don't think I would have needed to bluff)

Yeah... what?

Why didn't you pick "Cure" on Night 4, townies? Poor Sig...

You'll receive PMs tomorrow in order to vote for an MVP. Easier that way, I think.

Now, time to clean my hands of this red host makeup.

Host Diary, Quirks, References (cont.)

Diary

(placing them under spoilers just to save up space)

Day 0

Spoiler: show

Day 1

Spoiler: show

healthy activity, but civs were not hitting the spot overall and there was also an unprecedented (for The Syndicate standards) "no lynch" wave, three quarters of the phase, not to mention a clumsy game of claims
-- rabbit was the "dart-throwiest" of the mafiosos, with surprising good results: mildly painted SVS as having empty pings (which managed to even lure JJJ in); got read genuine in his efforts by some big hunters (JJJ, G-Man, sig); Scotty got exposed the most to some wag-of-finger, especially with fixating on low posters
-- Elohcin made the riskiest moves on the radar: pushing for sig as suspect after JJJ's fakepeek and trying to test the validity of JJJ's peek a bit too closely
-- JJJ intuitively started the fakepeek cover-up, but then for a while nobody played along; G-Man (the real cop) even contested the legality of the move, but only due to rules phrasing; finally Wilgy tags along; both JJJ's and Wilgy's fakepeeks were civ-on-civ
-- not to mention that Wilgy docclaimed fairly early and open - not even sure how well hidden within banter
-- unbeneficial "no lynch" wave (with INH particularly uncooperative), from which two baddies (Elohcin and Scotty) also tried to push for a mislynch (Vompatti)
-- unbeneficial civ-on-civ antagonisms: INH vs JJJ, Epignosis pooping on JJJ's or INH's efforts (granted, also profiled Scotty correctly), Polo being chastised for low activity
-- to the admiration of the Host, some of the players opened up to the possibility of an indie, despite the actual indie not being close to what they had in mind
-- BOOM, suddenly G-Man had two out of three baddies called out
-- unfortunately, both major players to name Scotty bad (Epignosis, G-Man) moved on civilian alternatives instead
-- Vompatti lynched after EoD pileup; SVS second wagon (with Wilgy making late switch on her); all three baddies on mislynch, first three final votes
-- as far as "greatest fears" go, D1 challenged four out of 13 players, but none of them were affected:
Wilgy was in no danger
S~V~S wasn't really as engaged and hunt-leading as she envisioned herself
meanwhile, INH was seriously playing with fire, poking at JJJ
JJJ himself got some heat to maybe elicit some worries about getting lynched
-- with Vompatti dying during this phase without his greatest fear coming true and SVS overcoming her fear, two of Spacedaisy's (The Reaper) choices for winless players became invalid

Night 1

Spoiler: show

Day 2

Spoiler: show

Night 2

Spoiler: show

Day 3

Spoiler: show

Night 3

Spoiler: show

Day 4

Spoiler: show

Night 4

Spoiler: show

Day 5

Spoiler: show

Quirks

The common taboo/unlucky numbers 4 (China), 9 (Japan) and 13 (Western countries) were always excluded from counts and helped design the mafia team. The gameplay and rules lists skipped these numbersand the cycle of Day/Night 4 was jumped (without any gameplay effects). This was also meant as subtle hinting at which patients were mafia, although I immediately had to restrict some infodumping liberties, because civs picking up on this and testing the patient # claim w/could have broken the game for the mafia and the indy.

And now's the time for you to hate me, because Guideline 10, asking players to never end a phase with 4, 9 or 13 (or multiples) posts, was the element of anxiety or "fearing something for no reason" - after all, I didn't put it in the rules section, did I?

The civilian power roles also received thematic numbers, based on the popular joke "why is Six afraid of Seven" - and because symmetry. Technically, the Doctor (Patient 7) could have blocked (alongside protecting) the Cop (Patient 6) and hence undermine one of his efforts. Ironically, Wilgy DID undermine G-Man's efforts on Night 3.

The idea of an indy developed simply after I've written the "Who Fears the Reaper" pun in the signup poll.

References

Spoiler: show

Day 0 Host Post and Poll
-- the title is a reference to an animated short by Don Hertzfeldt, about a man whose anxieties and social issues make everything, in fact, totally not OK. Plus, I'm clearly obsessed with my meta, but this title also made a connection to my final story from E.S.T. Mafia, which also used a lot of references from Hertzfeldt's animations.
-- juliets, as the MoD, was introduced in the flavor as Mrs. Julie, the Host's sidekick (same thing happened in E.S.T. with MP / Socky)
-- the common exclusion of floor 13 in buildings, due to triskaidekaphobia issues, was referenced
-- the taboo numbers 4, 9, 13 were referenced as the only floors at which the elevator had stopped
-- floor 12 and 1/2 is a reference to floor 7 and 1/2 from the Charlie Kaufman scripted Being John Malkovich. Kaufman's own recent movies (Synechdoche, Anomalisa) also happen to reference a lot of mental disorders or themes of anxiety
-- "Halloway" is my prefered English nick (full)name. I also checked and there is a phobia counsellor called "James Holloway", but I don't like Holloway as much.
-- the "Virtual Reality Medical Center" is both tongue-in-cheek for this forum gaming experience and an actual business
-- "Dunder Miffling, this is P[am]" is a popular catchphrase from The Office. The line was written as a confusing moment, meant to foreshadow the Night 1 "Mulholland ruse"
-- the poll was off-topic, irrelevant and created in jest, also referencing The Office; I had also trolled The Office Mafia with this off-topic question
-- the song Afraid of Everyone by The National references the Host's anthropophobia in the story and its title was also used as the "No" option in the sign-up poll
Day 1
-- the story references several events and posts written by players during Day 0 or merely catchphrases: Serge ("the sergeant") leaving and SVS arriving; Quin being worried enough to be counting his posts (screwing up, too); Wilgy's catchphrase (also a subtle irony at him being, in fact, the town doctor); Vompatti's posts devoid of real content; Jay's initiative to generate discussion and "lynch priorities" convo with Spacedaisy; Sig noticing the missing #4 guideline and rule
-- The Office references continued, to generate outside meta for the "Mulholland ruse"; the scene in which the players end up debating Hilary Swank's hotness is a reference to the pointless Day 0 poll and a recreation of an actual scene in the show (with Polo being Oscar)
-- Twin Peaks references (the "Lynch" in the title; The Red Room; a quote about fear belonging to D. Cooper) also started being introduced, for the same meta purpose meant to foreshadow the "Mulholland ruse"; INH, the originator of the "Mulholland" concept, was written to always pick up on these references
-- "Redrum" is a catchphrase from Kubrick's The Shining
-- 13 is referenced in how many floors the group descends towards the Red Room and also in page 39 (13x3) from the brochure (which in fact does not exist - triskaidekaphobia)
-- Panda Bear's Take Pills was the only song I could think of, in reference to the medication issues the Host had in the story
Night 1
-- the story adapted moments from the player's activity: the game of claims, INH suspecting JJJ, etc.
-- "Mulholland ruse" elements: INH talking in Spanish; the "Did I Stutter" moment from The Office
-- the Vompatti projection was a reference to a scene from Being John Malkovich
-- Frank Zappa's Baby, Take Your Teeth Out references Vompatti's phobia (and usual, real-life banter talk about teeth)
Silencio
-- basically a complete derail of the story, to complete the "Mulholland ruse"
-- the four blurry pictures of hallways, leading up to the "Red Room", and the Finnish conversation with Vompatti were intentional [the lines in Finnish were entirely nonsensical and unrelated to the game or each other]; the pictures were also referenced in the Host Post;
-- elements added in the mix: triskaidekaphobia (the thirteenth button); taboo number 9 & circles of hell from Dante's Inferno (how many "levels" the group descended); the bartender ghost's line from The Shining; SVS's taphophobia and Polo's nyctophobia
Day 2
-- references towards the seven who voted to mislynch Vompatti, the post-mislynch animosity between some players, G-Man using my Day 1 Post to argue how many baddies there are, JJJ's love for ping-pong
Night 2
-- story incorporates the confrontation between JJJ and Epignosis (and a few others), G-Man trying to hint at being the one with real info
-- Jay's line "Oh Dr. Halloway, they gon kill me" is actually a paraphrase of a PM Jay sent me midway through the phase
-- references added: Matrix (the logic of dying in VR terminating your real life as well), Epignosis saying "you're the killer, bob" => Killer BOB and the paraphrase "no hay mafia" from Twin Peaks
-- both JJJ and INH had stories ready; I improvised a fake phobia for INH, since he never sent me his own text; story breaks out the meta window, by having INH leave the Center killdome, but get killed by actual mobsters
-- Talking Heads' Fear of Music was used to paraphrase "Fear of Mafia" for INH's fake phobia, plus to reference INH's early wish (during sign-ups) for this to be his role. "Fear of Mafia" was also used by MP in his THM game.
Day 3
-- story incorporates Polo's chosen phobia, including excerpts from the actual text he sent me
-- references added or repeated: talk about Hilary Swank's "koinophilia" from The Office, the catchphrase about coffee from Twin Peaks, triskaidekaphobia (the thing about B turning into 13 - or in fact the inversion of that, because Schönberg [see below]), G-Man's lines beginning with B, a few phrases already used in Silencio
-- "Please. Accept the mystery" is a line from the Coen Brothers' A Serious Man
-- Nacht (Night) is the 8th part of Arnold Schönberg's vocal-chamber masterpiece Pierrot Lunaire; Schönberg is probably the most notorious triskaidekaphobic ever - and basically the inspiration for this game. The Host Post title (in German) is the first verse from the piece and its English translation is also paraphrased into the text at one point ("somber, shadowy, giant mothwings"); the verse "dank fumes of the lower darkness" is also incorporated.
Night 3
-- story incorporates the "intel" on Elohcin and her being caught
-- references: indirectly, triskaidekaphobia (the Browns' 13th anniversary)
-- Elohcin never provided a phobia story and, while I came up with phobias for other players (INH, rabbit), I chose not to craft one for the Patient 13 itself
-- Fear March is a dark folk song by Faun Fables; strict thematical references (and the name crafted into the mafia's organization name into the main story)
Day 4
-- story ends with a twist on the idea that someone would be killed (when in fact, there was no kill) by revealing only INH's death, from Night 2, to the other characters
-- references, recurring or otherwise: SVS's phobia, Lt. Sock, the TV show Chuck (which MP began co-hosting at that time), the Fear March established crime organization
-- Gong's Can't Kill Me was about all I could find in my playlist related to the fact that G-Man survived the night kill
Night 4
-- story incorporates Scotty's phobia and G-Man's letter B gimmick
-- the latter was crafted in the first half of the Host Post - all the new paragraphs or dialogue lines starting with B, the text itself "B"ursting with B-letter alliterations - in the eventuality that G-Man would have been lynched
-- references: Scotty's fantasy phobia, transposed via the movie Alien, the scene where the monster bursts from Kane's body closely recreated (some of the lines and scene description being copied from the script of the movie)
-- the Doors' song was about the easiest connection I could make with Scotty's storyline death
Day 5
-- story incorporates JJJ's phobia
-- references: triskaidekaphobia (mention of 13 patient forms), JJJ's frisbee passion, flachettes (small needles fired from a needlegun) in reference to JJJ's phobia
-- Flaming Lips' The Terror strictly game-theme-related
Final Battle
-- story incorporates the near unanimous lynch on Rabbit, the remaining players' stated phobias, the Cop's and Doc's powers
-- references: Inspector Gadget in relation to G-Man's investigative role and B-gimmick (combination of Bruno Bianchi, who created the show - letter B - and the Gadget character - letter G), his B-gimmick further emphasized in the dialogue (all his lines starting with B), Quin's Santa phobia, SVS's taphophobia, Wilgy's phobia of loneliness, Wilgy's catchphrase, Ghostbusters ("Fearblasters")
-- the title, Rabbit's evil appearance and most of his lines stem from the manga Bleach, in which an antagonist had the power to instill fear into his opponents and his final transformation was "Tatarforas", a made up word, as far as I can tell, for "Fear of God"
-- Tangerine Dream's Astrophobia (from Mars Polaris) references rabbit8's designated phobia (he never sent me a story, so I chose for him and picked this phobia simply so I could use the song)
Epilogue
-- final lines, in character or not, from the surviving civs and a wrap up story for Spacedaisy the Reaper
-- references: Ghostbusters (Wilgy humming the catchphrase of the song's chorus), G-Man's B-gimmick (his line starting with B), Spacedaisy's game task and the manga/anime Death Note - Shinigami, Shinigami King - as well as Spacedaisy having played and won as "Kami" in the Syndicate game
-- Pink Floyd's Fearless to signal the civ's victory and invert the theme of the game

Host Diary, Quirks, References

Bottom line

-- Power roles decided the outcome.
-- Cop's choices were on point and was lucky only to have one of it altered; G-Man chose a blunt, balls-to-the-walls tactic and trusted his reads even after it was revealed they could be corrupted, but luckily it all turned out well
-- Doc's banter was on point, but he also made the right moves when it mattered (protecting the outed Cop); probably became aware of his sanity, as soon as he failed to protect himself on Night 2
-- Mafia had a strong tide at first - some civs guessing the baddies, but failing to capitalise several times - but then got busy, did not march on manipulating the civs to chew each other up and they did not properly hunt for the power roles at all - the most bewildering thing was that G-Man outed himself to a mafioso, by trying to persuade rabbit to move his vote off confirmed civ INH, on Day 2; afterwards in BTSC, rabbit was, like, "hey let's kill a low poster"

Their choice to go ahead with targeting G-Man on Night 3 gave the civilians complete advantage
-- Spacedaisy would have won if G-Man would have died on Night 3

/	G-Man	DrWilgy	Mafia	Spacedaisy
Day 0	INH (genuine) [10%]	-	-	lynched: Wilgy - Sig - Elohcin killed: JJJ - G-Man - Rabbit winless: Vompatti - Quin - Serge/SVS
Night 1	Scotty (distorted-> Reaper) [20%]	INH	Sig	lynched: Wilgy - Sig - Elohcin killed: JJJ - G-Man - Rabbit winless: Vompatti - Quin - Serge/SVS
Night 2	Elohcin (genuine) [40%]	DrWilgy (autofailed)	Polo	lynched: Wilgy - Sig - Elohcin killed: JJJ - G-Man - Rabbit winless: Vompatti - Quin - Serge/SVS
Night 3	SVS (blocked) [40%]	G-Man	G-Man (failed)	lynched: Wilgy - Sig - Elohcin killed: JJJ - G-Man - Rabbit winless: Vompatti - Quin - Serge/SVS
Night 4	rabbit8 (genuine) [30%]	Spacedaisy	JJJ	lynched: Wilgy - Sig - Elohcin killed: JJJ - G-Man - Rabbit winless: Vompatti - Quin - Serge/SVS

Setup walkthrough

Role PM & Game phase

Every player in this game would receive an extra individual win condition. Even among Mafia ranks, this win condition would be strictly personal. Every player, except the independent, were meant to craft their own win condition i.e. decide on a gameplay event, meant to affect them, that they'd fear the most. The independent received a win con crafted by the Host, but was also meant to make his own projections. Each player's fate was his own doing.

All 14 players were also asked (but not required) to write up a personal phobia story, which would have been incorporated in the Host Posts.

Civilian Roles

Patient 1. Vanilla civilian.
Patient 2. Vanilla civilian.
Patient 3. Vanilla civilian.
Patient 5. Vanilla civilian.
Patient 6. Paranoid cop (stylised, odds). Every Night, can check a player to determine his alignment, but there is a 10% chance he will get a distorted read (a random role from a different faction) compared to the actual alignment. Odds will worsen (increase) with each civilian death during the game, maxing at 60%, yet improve (decrease) for every mafia death. Receives one free ID on another civilian at the end of D0, but it too will fall within the 10% chance of being a distorted read. The cop will not be self-aware of his sanity during the game - receives a role card that informs him of traditional cop duties, but with a slight questioning of this fact.
Patient 7. Paranoid doctor. Every Night, can choose to protect a player from being nightkilled, but his target will also be roleblocked. The doc will not be self-aware of his sanity - receives a role card that informs him of traditional doc duties, but with a slight questioning of the fact.
Patient 8. Vanilla civilian.
Patient 10. Vanilla civilian.
Patient 11. Vanilla civilian.
Patient 12. Vanilla civilian.

Mafia Roles

Patient 4. Vanilla mafia.
Patient 9. Vanilla mafia.
Patient 13. Paranoid mafia leader. Receives a role card that informs him of his sanity and that one of his teammates may be plotting against him. Can secretly override the team's decision for a nightkill (by sending his own choice via PM to the Host) and can target any player whatsoever, but is restricted to one successful kill per faction. [Unbeknownst to him, his paranoia is unfounded and there is no adversity within the mafia ranks. His kill move will still go through, however, if he chooses to send it.]

Independent

The Reaper. Win grabber. Must submit via PM, at the start of the game (until the end of Day 0), the names of three players it predicts will be lynched, three players that will be nightkilled and three players that will end up winless (will not be told what this implies). Cannot include itself in any of these guesses. If any three of these predictions happen, achieves win and exits the game. Must also survive the game until win condition is fulfilled.

Roles distribution

All 14 roles were randomly distributed, as seen in this link.

Role	Player	Phobia	Power role	Game fear	Status
Patient 1	Vompatti	Odontopiptophobe (fear of teeth falling)	Vanilla civilian	Being nightkilled on Night 2	Died before it could happen.
Patient 2	sig	Asthenophobe (approx*: fear of chronic weakness)	Vanilla civilian	Being nightkilled on Night 1	Succumbed.
Patient 3	insertnamehere	Mafiaphobe (ad lib**: fear of mafia)	Vanilla civilian	Being voted by JJJ on Day 1	Did not happen.
Patient 5	JaggedJimmyJay	Cnidophobe (approx: fear of flying insect stings)	Vanilla civilian	Being lynched on Day 1	Did not happen.
Patient 6	G-Man	Vehochtypóphobe (ad lib**: fear of hitting someone with the car)	Paranoid cop (stylised, odds)	Being voted by Epignosis or Polo on Day 2	Did not happen.
Patient 7	DrWilgy	Isolophobe (fear of loneliness)	Paranoid doctor	Receiving final votes from any player 3 distinct times by Day 4	Voted only one time, never fulfilled.
Patient 8	S~V~S	Taphophobe (fear of being buried alive)	Vanilla civilian	Leading a mislynch on Day 1 (being followed by a majority of the mislynch voters)	Did not happen.
Patient 10	Epignosis	Enochlophobe (fear of crowds)	Vanilla civilian	Being nightkilled on Night 1	Did not happen.
Patient 11	Polo	Nycteggizophobe (ad lib**: fear of something approaching in the dark)	Vanilla civilian	Being lynched on Day 2	Did not happen.
Patient 12	Quin	Clausophobe (fear of Santa Claus)	Vanilla civilian	Being nightkilled on Night 1	Did not happen.

Role	Player	Phobia	Power role	Game fear	Status
Patient 4	Scotty	Automatonocibophobe (ad lib**: fear of food turning sentient inside his stomatch)	Vanilla mafia	Being nightkilled!	Did not happen.
Patient 9	rabbit8	Astrophobe (ad lib**: fear of the stars, outer space)	Vanilla mafia	[designated]Being checked as mafia on Night 3	Did not happen.
Patient 13	Elohcin	Unknown	Paranoid mafia leader	Being lynched on Day 2	Did not happen.

Role	Player	Phobia	Power role	Game fear	Status
The Reaper	Spacedaisy	Fears nothing	Independent	-	-

*approximate term for how the player described his fear
**fully or partially made up term for the player's chosen fear

I Fear the End Is Near, My Dear

'Boy, it sure feels good that it's all over', G-Man said, on their way back to the cars.
'Who you gonna call? Fear-busters!' DrWilgy sang, 'Huh. Has a nice ring to it.'
'You know what, I do feel better about myself after this', Quin remarked.
'I'm just happy this nightmare is over. Not that I asked for this nightmare in the first place, when I signed up for the therapy session, so my lawyer will be getting in touch', SVS sanctioned the Host.
'I feel nothing. I'm going home. Too much of a crowd here', Epignosis said.

The Host and Mrs. Julie simply exchanged looks, as always, thinking it was good enough of a resolution, given the circumstances.

If there was anything left to say, it was that none of them had sensed the presence of a second figure, a genuinely ghastly one, but nor were they bothered by it during this denouement. Spacedaisy had followed them, but simply decided to renounce her, shall we say, corporeal version. She was feeling very bored and apathetic, strolling through the human world with her constant duties and observing the people in general, when she noticed the advert for the Virtual Reality Medical Center therapy and thought to herself that it would be interesting to see what kind of strange fears people can be affected by; the concept of fear, rational or otherwise, was completely foreign to her, since she had nothing to fear of, not even death. She even gambled, out of amusement, to strip herself of her visionary powers, join the group appearing as a regular human and try to guess which of them would suffer the most from the experience and in what ways. In her medical form she wrote that she feared God, but she did so only in jest. Then, during that whole bizarre experience, she was mildly amused by the humans' ways of acting so scared or paranoid or murderous, but was surprised the victims didn't turn out quite the ones she predicted. Not that it mattered too much, but it made her powers feel... rusty. Reapers can have their own prestige to worry about, after all.

This day, she followed the surviving group in their seek for revenge and closure and it also proved interesting and visceral to witness. She was surprised of Rabbit's dark spiritual powers, as had not felt any trace of them back when he was mingling with the group, though she didn't find it too startling. Shit can happen. But now, with things finally settled, she took no further interest in these humans, simply spread her wings and flew back to the Shinigami Realm, overcome with boredom once more. Or at least a bit annoyed that her guessing skills were that off. If only a few of them, at least three, damnit.... She was greeted by the King as soon as she arrived.

'No luck this time, I see, eyyy?' the King addressed her in his slow, dead still voice.
'Not this time, I suppose,' she shrugged, perching on a cliff.
'Maybe next time', the King humored her. 'Tides can always turn one way or another. Isn't that so...' he stared deeper at her, '...Kami?'
'Mneh... care for some apples? They're so... juicyyy...'

Triskaidekaphobia Mafia has concluded! The civilian patients have won!
Congratulations to
DrWilgy, Epignosis, G-Man, insertnamehere, JaggedJimmyJay, Polo, Quin, S~V~S and Vompatti.
Thanks for playing!
Many thanks to juliets for modding and to TH and MP for the tech support.

Tatarforas

First thing next morning, after clearing out the mess they'd found at the Center, shutting down the facility and giving statements to the police - the Chief himself looking terribly unhappy to have to return to this wicked place - the Host and Mrs. Julie drove off to try to warn the surviving members of the group that the thread of the Fear organization was still looming and that they were not safe, that nobody was safe. Mrs. Julie was inspired enough to have typed in everyone's contact sheets details in the database, while the ensemble was still during its orientation phase back then, but it didn't matter all that much, since the first person they planned to check on was the one that Mafia didn't bother with anyway, considering that he had apparently shared a life with the enemy during all these years.

They reached the place and knocked on the door of Epignosis' house, only to stand there waiting for the next couple of minutes. Everything on the street was so quiet and they couldn't detect any signs of movement from inside the house either, which naturally made them worried. But then, to their surprise, it was Quin who swiftly opened the door and waved at them to hurry inside. He led them to the basement, where most of the people from the group were gathered.

'We're forming a good ol' lynch mob and putting an end to this', Quin explained right away.
'Jay is dead', Epignosis said, switching the channel to the breaking news story of the ongoing investigation in the city park.
'Oh my goodness', Mrs. Julie exclaimed as they showed blurred footage of Jay's dispatched body.
'The last of them surely did this', SVS pointed out.
'How do you know who it is?' the Host asked.
'Bruno Gadget, inspector, at your service', G-Man revealed. 'I was the one who gave the cops the intel on Elohcin yesterday. And this morning I received more information on who the third culprit is.'
'Bruno G...’ the Host uttered, almost to himself.
'Yeah, don't think about it too much', Wilgy said.
'By my understanding, the sources aren't 100%, but I think it's enough to go with and we should go take him down', G-Man carried on and everyone else nodded.
'Him?' the Host inquired further, at which point G-Man took a photo from the table and showed him the profile of the alleged third mafioso. 'I see...’ the Host thought to himself, 'the silent one.'
'I still don't understand why you couldn't come out sooner with these informations', SVS said a bit reprovingly. 'So many deaths happened in the meantime.'
'Believe me', G-Man proceeded to excuse himself, 'I hinted as best as I could, then I went straight to the police, when they arrived yesterday. As for why I couldn't profile this guy sooner, I had no signal in the cell last evening. I came to you all as soon as I received confirmation this morning.'
'It's true', Wilgy stepped in. 'I shared the cell with him and he was constantly agitated, complaining about the lack of signal.'

They seemed to be ready with the final details, overall. They preferred to confront the baddie in broad daylight, right away, rather than risk him attempting any more attacks, plotting something during the night or getting backup. Or worse, vanishing away without paying for what he had done. They weren't planning on getting violent, but just in case, G-Man was equipped on duty and Quin brought a family shotgun he licensed himself to use, so to speak. This surprised everyone a bit, since he didn't seem the type. But he told them he didn't feel good about the guy from the moment he stepped into the lobby room of the VR center and right now, all he had in mind was to settle things. Anyway, the Host wanted to address one more issue:

'Still, are you so confident it's him? What makes you trust each other? Do you have alibis for the past 12 hours?'
'Bugger that, I already told you I'm the inspector', G-Man reasserted.
'And I've already told you I've been with him', Wilgy reminded, then emphatically added, 'My name is Dr. Wilgy and I am most definitely a jailer! Plus, I followed Epignosis after we left and slept in his backyard, I really hate being alone.'
'Are you kidding me?’ Quin also replied, 'Do I look like a sly, determined murdered to any of you? I can't even go shopping or partying at Christmas, because people dressed up as Santa give me the creeps.'
'I got drunk', Epignosis added.
'And... What of Mrs. Daisy?' Mrs. Julie asked, realizing she wasn't present.
'No word on her', Quin replied.
'We should get going', Epignosis rolled up a map and turned the TV off.
'Anything to get out of this basement', SVS sighed.
'Yeah, what's up with that?' Wilgy noticed.

They were strategically splitting in two cars; the Host and Mrs. Julie would trail behind. The group found it curious that they came with a company van and thought it could look a bit suspicious, but when asked what it was for, the Host just replied, 'Equipment'. They set off for what would be a 45-minute drive towards the suburbs, according to G-Man's information. Epignosis, Quin and SVS were in the car ahead, G-Man and Wilgy sticking together in the former's vehicle. Things went smoothly until Epignosis turned right on the boulevard and, after a short time, realized he couldn't spot the second car, nor the van anymore. Before they could wonder if something had happened, the Host called to tell them they had stopped simply because G-Man was paranoid he had hit something with his car, when in fact it had been just a bump in the road.

They reached their destination and scattered both ways on a plain, quiet street with traditional homes, though the house they were planning on raiding looked a bit more decrepit, oozing a bad vibe. The Host and Mrs. Julie witnessed them approach the residence from different sides, as if executing a plan they'd concocted in great detail. But there was no response and no activity, so they reconvened to the cars and texted each other to keep watch. It proved an excruciating wait, during almost the entire rest of the day. But just as the sun was setting and they were about to give up and start doubting themselves or, truth be told, G-Man's claim, a hooded figured creeped in a rush, walking in fact right behind the Host's van and skittered inside the house. His hood had a dark colored animal skull drawn on its back.

The group executed the tactic once more, Quin's trio appearing to just stroll down the street, but with intent to sneak around the house, whilst G-Man and Wilgy went straight to the main door. They found it half-open this time, which prompted G-Man to reflexively take his gun out. The two teams synced somehow in penetrating the premise and running into one another in the lobby room, with no sign of anyone else. Then eerie, droney music started sounding from the room across. They warily pushed the sliding door and pointed their weapons at the rocking armchair at the other end of the room, behind which they could sense the man grumbling some incognizant sounds.

'Hands up, Rabbit', Quin immediately said.
'...lonely...'
'What's he saying?' SVS wondered.
'Lonely. Lonely.', the gurgling intensified.
'Hands up, I said', Quin repeated, 'We got you, you son of a bitch.'
'I'm lonely,' the voice kept on rambling.
'This is creeping me out', SVS took a step back.
'Where are... my teammates?' the sepulchral voice suddenly shrieked.

Everyone was startled and lost their resolve a bit, lowering their weapons and thinking they walked into something beyond their understanding. The figure stopped rocking in the chair.

'Your leader was arrested and your buddy Scot burst up in pieces', Epignosis said, keeping his coolness. The voice chortled gravely upon hearing this.
'Ah yes... I remember now...'
'Buddy, listen, just surrender and we won't hurt you. You're all alone now, there's nothing you can do anymore', G-Man pointed out.
'Alone...? Heh heh heh heh
'This is not good', SVS said.
'Heh heh heh heh'
'He's not listening, what should we do?' Quin pondered.
'How amusing of you to think I'm just a powerless pawn. You've caught the others, you say? Nothing more I can do, you say?'
The others stopped talking, their composure withering.
'But I am...FEAR ITSELF'

And as he leaped from his chair and turned to the others, his hood flew off revealing a ghastly slim body with rabbit ears growing in nightmarish size, a stream of blood pouring from each of his rolled up eyeballs and the white jacket he was wearing underneath running down the middle like a line of stitches.

'What the foark?!' Wilgy yelled.
'YOU FEEL THIS VICTORY EMPOWERS YOU', Rabbit went on in his demonic voice. G-Man tried to lift his gun back up and shoot, but he suddenly felt him arms paralyzed. Quin managed as far as to point the shotgun at him, but then he too couldn't move his twitching index any further.
'What's going on? Shoot him!' Epignosis shouted.
'YOU FEEL YOU HAVE FOUND REASON TO OVERCOME ANYTHING NOW.'
'I... can't... move', Quin gasped.
'BUT REAL FEARS DON'T HAVE A REASON. YOUR FEARS ARE IN YOUR DEEPEST INSTINCTS.'
'Aaargh', SVS was giving in.
'ONE LOOK AT ME AND FEAR WILL PENETRATE YOU.'
'Look away!' Epignosis said, shutting his eyes.
'USELESS!! LIKE PAST FEARS SUDDENLY APPEARING IN THE DARK OF THE NIGHT, FEAR YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED ONCE WILL BECOME STRONGER WHEN YOU CLOSE YOUR EYES AND ECHO IN THE BACK OF YOUR MIND.''

They were each slowly succumbing to projections or hallucinations and screaming their lungs out. SVS felt her body slipping slowly through the floor as if it were quicksand and she would descend all the way down to the depths of the earth, while still breathing. Quin felt reindeer horns protruding through his skin. Epignosis felt he was in a room squashed between countless people wearing rabbit masks and moshing, with their eyes glowing red. They were hollering and quavering, when, all of a sudden, a blast ripped through the vision of the fearsome demon rabbit before them, putting a stop to their envisioned phantasmagoria and sending the real sized human crashing into the bookcase. The Host and Mrs. Julie were standing behind them, holding up cannon-like artefacts.

'Quick', the Host said, 'each of you grab one of these.'
'What are they?' Quin asked.
'Fearblasters.'
'Fearblwhat?!' Wilgy squawked.
'It's one of our prototypes, meant to distort and rip through the representation of your fear whilst inside a projection. We just didn't have time to implemen-'
'Ok, enough of that, let's just do this', Epignosis cut him off and grabbed one of the guns.
'Use these', the Host continued, 'but more importantly... think of how strong you've become... think of your determination.'
'No... no...' Rabbit seemed to regain his senses in the meantime. They strapped on the fearblasters and faced him. The hallucination effect seemed to have reached its limit.
'NO,' Rabbit howled one more time, lunging at them before the cumulated blasts sent him flying through the wall.

They found him lying on the grass in the back garden, his torso blown up - Quin, it seemed, had forgotten to switch his shotgun -, gazing stunned at the starry sky.

'Heh, it's getting dark, huh', he babbled with a fainting voice, in between coughing blood, 'I always hated going outside after dark, at night. I fear looking at the sky... the stars, the planets... the outerworldliness of it all... it feels so crushing to be on this earth, surrounded in this globe by everything else out there...by sheer, void depth...'

His only wish was for them not to break off his rabbit ears - which they kinda respected, burying him only up to his forehead.

rabbit8, an astrophobe*, has been lynched.
He was Patient 9, Vanilla mafia.

*ad lib: fear of the stars, outer space

Thing is, so do I...

Couple more minutes... Y'all seem confident it'll end, hmm...

I can see the back of my last Host Post.

G-Man wrote:Before we assume this game is over, I have a question for the host- does my (the cop's) insanity get worse with each civvie lynch or each civvie death (lynch and NK)?

I totally posted my peek without reading what Quin posted about my real role card.

5.02

Death, of any kind.

Day 5: That's Going to Sting

They were done.

No more of this swirling madness of strange therapy, virtual immersions, fearsome experiences, creepy murders, worrisome disappearences and sinister returns, police force incompetence and now voodoo alien magic could they suffer through in one ceaseless adventure. They all mutually agreed to take off, each their own separate ways, and never speak of this ever again. The police Chief himself didn't really object to releasing them, since there were no current leads on the assassins and there was also the issue of how to handle a corpse ravaged by ingested beings inside their bloody old station.

The group was aware that one more scoundrel was probably still lurking among them, but they considered what had happened to Elohcin and Scotty as a sign that they were vigilent enough and that the remaining scum was too reluctant to act on his own anymore. They also deviced an ingenious method for each one of them to leave separately, roughly 15 minutes apart from each other, either on their own or driven with the help of a police car or a taxi, as to make sure no one would be followed.

Therefore, after a couple of hours, only the Host remained in custody, since he still had to respond for the murders that had happened in his building, during his crazy experimenting. Still, Mrs. Julie arrived shortly after to bail him out, at least until further prosecution. They head out back to the Center, intent to shut down the entire VR project and hand over all the research material and profile evidence to the police. Yet their own naiveté in believing that things would be so simple surfaced as soon as they walked inside the building, only to find their offices raided and the few members of the medical staff that were on duty beaten unconscious or tied up and screaming. The rest was as they feared: the VR devices stolen, the forms of all 13 patients ripped from the contact sheets.

They were not done.

***

Jay arrived home some time after midnight, feeling exhausted. He had no strength left to process the events that happened and the interactions established in that group, despite doing so in his head even on the way home, after departing from the whole scene. He dragged himself through the darkness of his condo and crashed in bed right away. The following morning, he didn't like the sound of the apartment buzzer waking him up, along with heavy, incessant thumps in the door, but shortly after regaining his senses a bit, he thought it could be the police or someone from work. For a moment, he even considered that it could be the last attacker. He fearfully approached the door, trying not to make any sound that could be detected from the outside.

But what a surprise, it was only a few close friends. They came to bother him with gifts and loud cheering mood, since it had been his birthday the other day, but they couldn't find him, nor reach him on the cell - he did check later and saw that he indeed had 121 missed calls. One of the gifts was wrapped in a box and, to his great delight, inside was a frisbee. A Brodie Smith Darkhorse Ultra-Star, in fact. It was still early before noon, so his friends invited him to head out and make the party more eventful.

The summery, slightly breezy weather the perfect occasion for Jay and his friends to head out to the park and spread out for a game of Ultimate Frisbee. Intense, fast-paced, strategic and uniquely anarchic, for Jay it was like nothing else. And if there's something that trumps almost any other activity for Jay, besides ping-pong, it was playing Ultimate Frisbee. They set out in two teams and were ten gripping minutes in, when Jay, flanked by two opponents, executed a twist dribbling to evade past them, but then, as he was set to make a pass, he slightly lost his balance and sent the frisbee flying high into the trees nearby.

'My bad', Jay waved at the others and proceeded to go retrieve the disc. He got blinded by the sun a bit, as he tripped whilst throwing, so he didn't quite make where the frisbee had landed. After searching for a few minutes inside the tree area, he spotted the black object close to a big, lush tree it probably ricocheted off. The frisbee had also landed past a ditch, which was too stretched out to go around and slightly too big to jump past it as well, but Jay figured he could have easily take a step forward to lean, putting his foot over the branches, leaves, moss and plastic bottles covering that side of th-

'Oh my heck!' he got spooked by the sight of the wasps' nest inside the ditch. 'Jeeeesus jimminy jumping jimsock jujus! I almost stepped in it. The frisbee must have knocked the nest from the tree and it rolled down here. Phew, good thing I spotted it. That would have been the absolute worst.'

He didn't spot in time, however, the cloaked figure that showed up from behind another tree and gunned him down with fléchettes.

JaggedJimmyJay, a cnidophobe*, has been killed.
He was Patient 5, vanilla civilian.
It is now Day 5. You have 48 hours to lynch someone.
A role has been revealed.

*approx.: fear of flying insect stings

Please note that, for once, the poll might not be entirely banter.

Night 4: Toothsome, Part 2

Bearing in mind the booming body count and the burning sense of paranoia they were feeling beaten by, the group was now backsliding into bouts of banter, botheration and blaming. Equally bitter they felt about the police chief having broken off any questioning for a while now and making a bad progress with profiling the remaining baddies - even worse was to hear his faulty, thought they, reasoning that, since everyone was accounted for in the cells, none of them could be blamable for this third victim's - *insert his name here* - butchering. So they bunched up once more inside the police station and inadvertently launched into a bowl of speculations.

'Best thing we can do', Jay took the initiative, 'is to profile ourselves and get to the bottom of it, via process of elimination.'
'Beginning with you', Epignosis snapped.
'But I already told you, I'm entirely trustworthy', Jay answered back, 'my credentials are solid.'
'Boy, don't start with that all over again', Epignosis said. 'We don't trust anyone. I don't trust anyone.'
'Barking up the wrong tree, I see', Jay rolled his eyes. 'We should clearly test each other again, Dr. Halloway made it clear that the bad seeds would not withstand the evaluation.'
'Baptism by fire!' shouted Quin.
'Been there, done that!' Epignosis emphasized, 'It. Does not. Work'
'Bring it on, then', Jay got slightly brassier. 'What's your phobia?'
'Bah', Epignosis dismissed it.
'Better tell us something or...’ SVS cautioned.
'Bah', Epignosis repeated.
'But didn't your wife falsify her forms by filling in your details?' Spacedaisy asked 'Think I heard Dr. Halloway talk about it with his secretary, after Elohcin was arrested. She must have written something, to fake it. What is it, then?'
'Bugs or something', Epignosis shrugged. 'No biggie.'
'By God!' Scotty rudely intervened, 'could you stop it with this endless, pointless exchange and figure something else out? I want to go home already.'
'What's the rush?' Jay inquired.
'I don't feel so well', Scotty explained, looking indeed slightly troubled as he was holding his hands around his stomach.
'Wait, aren't you the person who came to tell us that dead guy from outside disappeared?' Epignosis recalled.
'Yeah, probs, why's that?' Scotty asked.
'Well, maybe you had something to do with it', Epignosis pressed.
'Com'on, that's rich', grimaced Scotty, although you couldn't tell for sure if it was because of the accusation or because he was starting to feel real indisposed.
'You didn't interact too much with Elohcin back at the Center, did you?' Jay got on board and interrogated Scotty further.
'Why, I hardly knew the lady', Scotty rebutted.
'Almost as if... acting independent from her... and us', G-Man started piecing things togheter.
'Guys, really, com'o- ugh!' Scotty complained, only to suddenly be shaken up by a spasm.
'What's wrong with you?!' SVS got spooked.
'I feel there's... I hav-', Scotty struggled to speak, 'I have to go, I have a flight to catch.'
'A flight?' Epignosis frowned. 'I thought you said you had to go home.'
'Uh.'
'Tell us your phobia, right this instance', Jay demanded.
'No. It'll sound weird.'
'Speak, now', Jay reiterated.
'Guys, pleeaase', Scotty's spasms worsened.
'He's an accomplice, he's got nothing!' Quin exclaimed.
'You just wouldn't believe me anyway, it's so fucking weird', Scotty wailed.
'Tell us', Spacedaisy urged him.
'I... I have a recurring fear that the undigested food in my belly will become sentient, staging a coup and ripping through my gut to freedom.'
'You... what?!' the crowd shrieked.
'My entrails would spill out and I'd die of blood loss', Scotty kept babbling.
'Balderdash!' Epignosis shouted, jumping to his feet.
'Oh heck', was the last Scotty could utter, before being tackled by several of the men.

Meanwhile, Lt. Sock troubled the police chief with some information.

'Boss.'
'Busy', the Chief ignored him.
'Hey, boss.'
'Busy, I said!’ the Chief's temper blew up. 'What!' he indulged him nonetheless.
'Forensics sent us the report on that victim from the VR Center basement.'
'And?' the Chief pressed him to tell the important stuff.
'It said a lot of the victim's denture is missing from the scene.'
'Well, duh, he got cleaned off of them, didn't he?' the Chief mocked him.
'No, I mean missing. Not found.'

Before the Chief could snap out of his puzzlement and reply further, both he and Lt. Sock were startled by the noises and struggles coming from the group, as they were pinning Scotty on a table and beating him up. But then they halted and leaped back from the table, as Scotty's groan reached an inhuman intensity and his face screwed into mask of agony.

'It hurts! It hurts so bad!’ he yelled.
'What hurts?’ the Host asked, making his way through.
'Ohmygooaaaahh!!’ he howled.
'What the fuck, dude', someone shouted, 'your shirt!'

A red stain and then a smear of blood blossomed from below Scotty's chest, ripping apart through the fabric of his shirt. A small alien form, the size of an abnormal, overgrown tooth, burst through, splattering fluids and blood on everyone, and wriggled away out of Scotty's chest.

Scotty, an automatonocibophobe*, has been lynched.
He was Patient 4, vanilla mafia.
Oh, it is now Night 4. You have 24 hours to send me any PM actions.

*ad lib: fear of food turning sentient inside his stomatch

Missing: rabbit8

Epignosis wrote:EST

Poll runs till Fri Jul 29, 2016 7:45 pm

How is this poll still alive?

Must be cause it ends tomorrow.

S~V~S wrote:
Rico, does the target know s/he has been jailed?

I'm afraid I can't answer that.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:
Ricochet wrote:
JaggedJimmyJay wrote:HOST:

Do you interpret "power role" to mean "non-vanilla role" or "better than vanilla role"?
Define "better than vanilla role".
Some might not consider the beloved princess to be a "power role", for example. It is non-vanilla, but it is only harmful and never beneficial to town (when a BP is lynched, the following day phase is skipped).

Well, I fear we're getting complicated here, because I would actually consider a BP to be a power role - the BP can trigger an event that's integrated in the game.

I'll try this for an answer: I interpret "power roles" as ability i.e. the power to perform an action or trigger an event within the game. Therefore, if vanilla means having no ability, power roles are distinct from vanilla roles.

G-Man wrote:
Ricochet wrote:
JaggedJimmyJay wrote:HOST:

Do you interpret "power role" to mean "non-vanilla role" or "better than vanilla role"?
Define "better than vanilla role".
Better question: do you consider roles with passive abilities (survivor with an either/or wincon) but no active power to be non-vanilla?

4.06

Open to interpretation, but I would lean on no. Is "having to survive / surviving the game" really an ability? If answer is no, then it doesn't fall within "power roles". If, on the other hand, one regards anything besides "you are X, alignment z, vanilla" to fall within "power roles", then

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:HOST:

Do you interpret "power role" to mean "non-vanilla role" or "better than vanilla role"?

Define "better than vanilla role".

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:
Quin wrote:I'm thinking that I want my post count to end on either 4 9 or 13 this phase.
Those are really small numbers, meh

I have you at 121 posts on Day 2, ffs.

Quin wrote: Ricochet. This game does fit within the heist guidelines, right? :P

I'm afraid I can't answer that.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:
Quin wrote:Ricochet. This game does fit within the heist guidelines, right? :P
Similar question for the HOST:

Do you interpret "3 power role limit" as being limited to just the civilian faction, or to the entire game roster?

I would interpret the limiter to the full game roster.

Day 4: Nocturne

Everyone was taken to the police station, including the Host. It was also decided that they would all be detained for the night, without any exceptions. Despite the fact that Elohcin was apparently such a notorious figure, suspected for so long by the police, none of the other people from the group were successfully identified to be her accomplices from the Fear organization; none of them had even a spot of a criminal record, in fact, at least not in the database. If it was true that Elohcin was scheming with two more underlings, it seemed they were mere recruited peons, able so far to camouflage themselves with the rest of the entourage. Everyone was acting confused, stressed, weary and angry at the same time. They were further vexed to find out there would be coupled in several holding cells, due to the fact that there were not enough such cells for individual solitary.

'You have no right to do this!' SVS bellowed, 'And my goodness, another place, another small space to be trapped within. What are the odds lol.'
'What if I end up with one of the other mafiosos and he decides to do away with me for pleasure?' Quin got nervous.

To which the Chief tried to assure them, as best as he could, that he'd have one of his men, namely Lt. Sock, guard them during the dark hours. The Lieutenant muttered to himself during this, saying it felt like old times. Epignosis was placed in a cell with the Host, something they both found unpleasant. The former was oscillating between bouts of feeling jaded and desponded or of bursting in anger. He kept cursing Jay and finding him as guilty as ever, plus even went as far as to bedamn the person who allegedly provided the intel about Elohcin, whoever that person may have been - which the others, that were able to hear him, from their own cells, wondered whether he had gone barking mad or was cracking under pressure.

Alas, the Chief had receiving new signals and left in a hurry, meaning that any further questioning of the people in the group had been called off for now. Many gradually let boredom and tiredness take over them and fell asleep. A torrential rainstorm started outside, bashing against the windows. The lieutenant in charge did not prove too consistent in his watch, after all, being distracted by a late rerun of an episode of Psych. Finally, after an hour or so, the people were either snapped from their nocturnal daze or woken up by the Chief storming back into the station and announcing there has been another victim.

'Oh no!' Spacedaisy shrieked.
'Is it related to these crimes?' Jay inquired.
'I told you they'd murder us inside these rat cages! I told you!' Quin jumped in with the verdict.

It turned out, however, that nothing of that sort had happened. Everyone was taken outside of their cells, all of them still alive and well, and they were guided outside the police station, where, on the steps, a body had been dumped, wrapped up in a bag, in front of the building, with a note attached saying "Courtesy of Fear March". The young man inside had his head split half open from what appeared to be a machete or cleaver of some kind.

'Isn't this the guy who fled from the medical ward, back then at the Center', Epignosis asked.
'I think so', Scotty assumed.
'Judging from the rigor mortis, he died an hour or so ago', the Chief explained.
'Oh', a few shortly acknowledged the information.
'You sound almost disappointed by this', the Chief raised his eyebrow.

Whether it was out of cynicism or feeling too terrorized at every step of the way, it was nonetheless true. They were clearly expecting something else.

No one has been killed.
It is now Day 4. You have 48 hours to lynch someone.

Less than two hours to go.

Sorry if you're confused or spooked by some of the information, I have a long way towards perfecting my hosting and design wording. JJJ has the correct interpretation, regarding the issue brought up. If there are any other questions, let me know.

DrWilgy wrote:Heheheh... DrWilgy outplayed the host...

I wonder who will have the last laugh, though, Mr. 9 Posts on Day 3.

Night 3: Fear March

Back to our main story regarding the potentially blameworthy Jay, the group, it has been written before, was now all reunited, save for the one or two members about which it has already been detailed, shouting over one another in regards to sig's accident, the desperate situation of these attacks or how Jay should be apprehended and his accomplices unveiled as well. There was no variation to this for several noisy minutes, nor was there any variation, it seemed, to Jay being found doubtful in his actions, especially in the eyes of Epignosis, who believed him to be crafting every possible excuse in the book, or G-Man, who felt proud to have disproved his claim of having had a peak at the prime suspect.

For what it's worth, Jay stood his ground and, in fact, offered to carry another VR experiment on himself, as to prove that he is a genuine patient. Epignosis argued that it was pointless to try the method anymore, given that one death was caused by real life injuries and neither people, so far, managed to cope with their fears inside the VR. Jay then tried to snatch the VR helmet that sig wore from the Host's hands, but was flanked and restricted by the men from the medical staff. With most of the others also becoming assured that Jay had to be the evildoer, their only fear was that his accomplices - two more, if the Host's information was to be trusted - would lose their restraint and attack them.

It was their relief, then, to hear the elevators doors open and witness of a police crew storming in, although they were equally puzzled, having no clue who among them had managed to call for help without having been noticed. It had to have happened not a long while ago, given that the policeman knew exactly at which floor to come - something that made the Host curious about, although it was all too trivial, really. The Police Chief introduced himself and started asking questions. Soon he was enlightened on everything that had happened in this experimental trap of a therapy gathering, which earned the Host a sharp look of distaste from the Chief, as to what exactly he was conducting here.

Everyone was hoping that the evidence would be enough to incriminate Jay, but the policeman decided to take it step by step and wanted to interrogate each one of them in private. Jay was still the first to be taken away, which prompted Epignosis, for instance, to just sit back and comfort Elohcin, inviting her to sit down and relax, believing it all to be over soon. Then, however, after only a quarter of an hour, Jay was brought back and others were called, one by one, which made Epignosis less content. When it appeared that it was Elohcin's turn, as the Chief walked towards her pointing with his finger, she stood up, only to have her wrists brusquely grabbed and handcuffed.

'You have the right to remain silent...' the Chief started reciting.
'Wh-What's happening?!' Elohcin shouted. Epignosis rose up alarmed, but was halted by one of the other officers.
'You are under arrest for the murder of Kendall Thornton, also known as Vompatti', the Chief decreed.
'What?! No!' Elohcin still couldn't believe her ears.
'What's the meaning of this!' Epignosis got angry, 'That's my wife, she didn't do anything!'
'Oh, I'm afraid she did', the Chief replied.
'What evidence do you have?' Elohcin struggled to release herself from the Chief's grip. 'I demand you present a case on me being guilty!' she added.
'There's no need, we just received precious intel on you', the Chief clarified, 'and it only confirmed what we knew already. We had you under surveillance for months.'
'This is an outrage', Epignosis continued to shout. 'My wife is not a criminal.'
'You wife is part of the Fear March movement, a crime organization that's been known to attack people and subject them to torture, based on profiling their greatest fears', the Chief clarified. 'She has been recruited for some time.'
'No, that's...' Epignosis seethed, 'Jay!' he suddenly turned at him. 'Is this your doing?!' But Jay was looking on without saying a word, just like all the rest of them.

Epignosis then started enough of a commotion with the officers to allow Elohcin to try once more to break away from arrest. But as she twisted and wrestled, almost succeed, an object of torture, similar to the one that was used on Vompatti, slipped from the inside of her trench coat and fell with a hollow bang on the floor. Everyone was speechless.

'Eloh... you...' Epignosis couldn't find his words no more. Elohcin was suddenly just looking away, resigned.
'I'm sorry', Elohcin murmured.
'Say it ain't so!' Epignosis started getting all melodramatic.
'I know it was supposed to be our anniversary and that I told you I needed this session to gain more confidence in myself, but... I had to do it; it's our mission' she got serious all of a sudden.
'It's better you don't say anything that will incri-' the Chief intervened.
'But how- since when?' Epignosis carried on.
'Ever since those nights out with the girls.' Elohcin answered.
'Those...' Epignosis struggled to understand. '...Wait'
'All those evenings', Elohcin continued. 'Playing Mall Madness or Bunco. It was all a pretext.'
'Eloh, no...' Epignosis's voice suddenly faded.

Shortly after Elohcin was taken away, Mrs. Julie showed the Host something remarkable. Her forms - Elohcin had never filled them with her own credentials, but with her husband's. She had not left any piece of information about her. She had it all covered up. And she would have probably gotten away with it too, if it weren't for-

Elohcin, fear unknown, has been lynched.
She was Patient 13, paranoid mafia leader.
It is now Night 3. You have 24 hours to send me any relevant actions.

*confiscates the popcorn*

Quin wrote:One more question, Rico.

Did the baddies know their teammates from the beginning, or did they have to wait until they gained BTSC?

Their limited BTSC access is independent from their knowledge of forming the mafia team. So yes, they were informed from the beginning.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:
Ricochet wrote:What movie was it, JJJ?
The new Star Trek. Visit Tinsel Town for a very brief review, beware of spoilers.

Lmao so both players tied to be lynched went to see that movie.

Only one came back alive.

What movie was it, JJJ?

Quin wrote:Ricochet, did the baddies have BTSC during Day 0?

No.

Day 3: Finstre, schwarze Riesenfalter

So the group was under the impression that only one among them had gone missing, once the whole commotion caused by Jay and Epignosis had stirred everything up, but that was not entirely true; Polo was also not present during the whole rumble. One can only assume the people were more interested in where the man who left flipping them off with a mocking meme drawing had gone; comparatively, Polo had been a much more discreet figure, so much that they at times hardly payed attention to. Sure, at first he was a fun oddball character, with his impassioned speech about Hilary Swank's koinophilia during that long wait in the conference room, but then most people started to doubt that he was taking things seriously - for example, down in the Red Room, whilst the group was heavily arguing with the Host over the effrontery of his desired experiment, Polo was nonchalantly trying out the scones and refreshments over at the corner table.

'Damn fine cup of coffee, this is', he even interjected at one point, attracting everyone's disapproving glare.
'Anything else you might want to share with us?' Scotty demanded.
'Not really, but see the number 13 on all these cups? If you would merge the two digits, you'd get the letter B', he said, staring at the cup in his hand.
'Boo this man!' G-Man shouted, reached out for a scone from his chair and threw it towards Polo.

Truth be told, Polo was indeed not taking things all that seriously. When he read the advert for this therapy session, his main thought was that maybe he'd meet some cute girls and try to hook up with one of them by empathizing with their fearful, maybe even tearful confessions. While, in this regard, the selection left him rather disappointed, he was still mildly amused by the whole turmoil, as well as by the Host's shenanigans, liking the idea of a mafia therapy. Then, during Vompatti's immersion and subsequent murder, he dozed off in his chair, with his helmet on! An act that actually got him off the hook, since nobody found it likely for him to be this absent-minded and yet part of the ones with killing intent.

And right now he took off, shortly after the people in the medical ward headed over to the lounge where sig had been attacked, because he had received an alert on Tinder from an acquaintance that happened to be in the neighborhood. He just walked out of the building, when he heard the sound of police car sirens drawing near, which quickly unsettled him, though not exactly for reasons pertaining to the whole debacle upstairs, as much as due to the fact that he'd miss out on his meeting, if he'd have to tag along the investigation or whatever the heck would follow up. It was already evening, so he quickly turned right at the corner of the building, before the cop lights would approach and could spot him, ran a few more blocks and then crossed the street on an alley that led into a small park. He was meant to meet the girl several more blocks to the left, so he figured he might as well just take a shortcut through here.

No sooner did he advance on the pathway surrounded by trees, like a corridor of sorts, when the lamp street lightings went out, as if the power had been cut. This truly troubled him. It reminded him that, when faced with the challenge of improvising a phobia of his own, with which to later impress the gals and the rest of the audience over at the therapy session, he couldn't think of anything fake that would sound legit, so he resorted to his own true fear, which was a sort of fear of the dark or, more precisely, of the sense that something strange is happening nearby in the dark. 'You know', he rehearsed his speech at home beforehand, 'when you're searching for the light, you run your fingers down the wall and feel your neck skin crawl? It's like sensing something's watching'.

The entire neighborhood seemed to have lost power, since he couldn't spot anymore the building lights, surrounding the park, either, meaning he became shrouded in near darkness. He thought of simply retracing his steps, at least out of this park, when a feminine silhouette appeared to him in the distance, from the other end of the alley, waving at him with a mobile flashlight in her hand. 'Polo!' the voice shouted, 'Over here!' and he recognized it to be his lady friend's. Although he couldn't hide a bit of a crippling emotion in trying to take any step further, he mustered the courage and continued down the alley.

That's when things started getting weird, at least to his perception. He heard footsteps behind him, but upon turning around, no one was really there. The slight breeze blowing above through the leaves transposed into creepy susurration to his ears; the dank fumes of the lower darkness around him, as well; the flapping somber, shadowy, giant mothwings. His senses intensified all of this. No matter how much he quickened his pace, he still couldn't shed the sure sensation that someone was there.

The mobile light of the person guided him nonetheless and he reached the silhouette after a short while, gasping heavily, face down, holding his hands on his knees. 'Thank God, I thought I was going mad in there', he said, but then, getting back up and looking at the figure, saw in front of him nothing but a lady-like contour of sheer pitch-blackness. Before he could initiate any attempt to run like hell, the figure grabbed him by the neck with one hand and pierced a dagger through his heart with the other.

Truth be told, Polo had never left the Red Room after that first session they had, plus he wasn't exactly dosing off underneath the helmet. How was it possible for him alone to get transferred into his own phobic projection, during Vompatti's, you may ask? How was it that nobody from the group noticed him in this state, as they left upstairs, not to mention Mrs. Julie, who had stayed behind to unplug the device, take care of the murder mess and so on? How is this consistent with every other line of dialogue of his, that appeared in the Host Posts after Vompatti's death?

Please. Accept the mystery.

Polo, a nycteggizophobe*, has been killed.
He was Patient 11, vanilla civilian.
It is now Day 3. You have 48 hours to lynch someone. Preferably a baddie.

*ad lib: fear of something approaching in the dark

Two more hours brouhahahaha (‘•̀ ▽ •́ )✎_______

Night 2: Fear of Mafia

'Some cover you provided out there, Jaybird', Epignosis proceeded immediately to castigate him.

A few people from the group had arrived from the medical ward, upon hearing the signals of tumult and distress. The Host, Mrs. Julie and two more people from the medical staff were trying to disconnect Sig from the VR helmet and make his regain consciousness, yet it was to no avail, as he seemed to have slipped into a coma for good.

'I... I don't understand, I was just... it wasn't even long ago that I left him here...' Jay tried to find his words to explain the situation.
'How could you just split up?' Wilgy questioned him.
'We didn't, he said he wanted to lie down a bit and I just strolled around a bit more. Nothing had happened this whole time we were patrolling', Jay countered with further unsettledness.
'Isn't there anything you can do?' Elohcin asked the Host, shivering with anxiety.
'Not to get all Matrix or anything', the Host tried to break it down, 'but if the mind collapses during the projection, there's little chance the person can just snap out of it, as if it were all a bad dream.'
'But I thought you said it would take hours for the VR system to cool down', G-Man pointed out.
'Well, it has been a couple of hours already', the Host rationalized, 'but anyway, it's easier to use it on one person than a whole ensemble.'
'What's more troubling', Mrs. Julie added, 'is how one of the helmets went missing. There's no record of anyone going downstairs again.'
'You know, you should really just tell us who the bad people are, this experiment of yours has clearly gone out of hand and people are suffering', she maintained.
'I'm afraid I can't do that', the Host bluntly replied.
'Why not?'
'I don't know who they are.'
'You don't?!'
'Confidentiality and impartiality were crucial to this trial, so our adverts only reached out to people with phobias, while the Center's manager made arrangements to recruit the nefarious people.'
'This is absurd. And where is your manager?'
'Not... here...' the Host's cold answer followed once more.

Elohcin just distanced herself from the scene, showing obvious signs of revulsion, so her husband swiftly stepped in.

'Let's narrow it down, then, to the villain in this room', he declared and pointed back at Jay 'That guy, right there.'
'Moi?!' Jay freaked out. 'Are you serious? I told you, we were coworkers. How could I have done this to him?'
'I find that irrelevant', Epignosis argued further. 'I don't exactly go out to picnic with all my colleagues at work.'
'Besides, that could have been precisely the reason to get rid of him. He must have known you are shady', G-Man started to warm up to the theory.
'Yeah, I don't remember sig ever confirming that you are cool beans', Wilgy remembered.
'This is ridiculous', Jay fought back. 'If anything, the two of us covered for each other, until a minute ago.'
'Emphasis on a minute ago', Epignosis accentuated.
'Why didn't the attacker target you instead?' Elohcin thought of asking.
'I don't know, probably because I'm a security guard?' Jay got a little snappy.
'No, you're the killer, bob', Epignosis said.
'Now you're just being stubborn', Jay grimaced.
'He don't know me too well, do he?' Epignosis jokingly looked at Elohcin.
'It must have been someone else, from the ward, while we weren't paying attention', Jay tried to reason.
'Couldn't have been', Epignosis replied. 'Nobody left the ward while I was on the watch.'
'Maybe you fell asleep'
'Son, please...' Epignosis rolled his eyes.
'Or you did this!' Jay charged at him.
'Jesus Almighty, you're scrambling for a way out of this one, it's so obvious', Epignosis got impatient.

The pause that followed didn't favor Jay much, as everyone else was gradually fixating on him with convicting looks.

'Okay, okay...' Jay tried to calm the mood, 'I know I made a mistake leaving sig alone and getting distracted, but...' he hesitated once more, 'the reason why I came back was because I had heard some noise coming from the hallway. In fact, I'm certain I saw the culprit rush away.'
'And you saw exactly who it was?' Elohcin asked excitedly.
'...Yes', Jay put a solemn face on.
'Bullsuit!' G-Man suddenly intervened. 'I happened to head towards the bathroom, a minute or two before I heard screams, and didn't notice anyone down the corridor you mention.'
'I thought nobody had left the ward', Jay squinted back at him, to which Epignosis grumbled.

Things got arguably a bit more confrontational and contradictory between all of them, but nothing overall seemed to deter the group from suspecting Jay.

'Out with it, then, who did you see?' Wilgy demanded.
'I'll tell you, but only after you say you trust me', Jay specified.
'It doesn't work that way', Epignosis shook his head.
'Tell us now!' Wilgy insisted.
'Tell us, otherwise I don't see how we can actually trust you', Elohcin also emphasized.
'It was that fellow, who I don't recall ever introducing himself, really', Jay revealed.
'Who, the one with the rabbit earmuffs?' Elohcin asked.
'No, the other one.'
'Wait, you mean the one who wrote his name down as insertnamehere on the forms?' Wilgy recalled.
'Yes! Him precisely!' Jay exclaimed.
'Bwahaha, no. Nope, nope', G-Man laughed. 'He stayed in the ward all along, playing cards with that guy named Scotty.'
'Well, they're must be in it together, then', Jay went on. 'In fact, they must have stayed behind, while Epignosis here carried the kill.'
'Scram-blin'!' Epignosis simply puffed.
'Bro, you're so lying', G-Man disapproved entirely.
'Look...' Jay got slightly evasive. 'This isn't helpful if the others are absent, civilians and baddies alike, no doubt.'
'I'm here, that's all we can ask for in any investigation', Epignosis pushed on. 'We're all here. You, however, be gone.'
'Oh Dr. Halloway, they gon kill me' Jay looked discouraged, but the Host just shrugged.
'Out with it or out with you!' the others said.
'Ok...' Jay looked discouraged. 'Ok, I didn't really see anyone.'

The men from the medical staff proved helpful in preventing the people to crucify Jay on the spot. The ruckus alerted virtually everyone back in the ward, so in a matter of minutes, they were all reunited; or so it seemed. Scotty came with an important announcement, holding a piece of paper.

'Hey, one of guys disappeared, I don't even recall him having introduced himself', Scotty revealed.
'Who, the one with the rabbit earmuffs?' Jay asked.
'No, the other one.'
'Oh.'
'He left this note, though', Scotty handed over the piece of paper.

It was a memetic drawing with three panels.

INH was not sensed, seen or stopped by anyone, as he got bored playing cards or gazing out the window and decided to slip out of the medical ward, take the elevator and head out of the building. On his way out, he saw a guy engrossed in watching table tennis and someone else spazzing out with a helmet on his head, but he slipped by unnoticed by either of them, without caring much for either events.

It was not too late to do something in town, so he went to see the StarTrekNewThing. He prefered old theaters, that would never risk getting that crowded, no matter what was screening, where you could sit way back, on some semi-obscured seat, splashing some Raisinets in that bucket o' popcorn and slurping out of a large soda, undisturbed. Except that he was disturbed, when, ten minutes into the movie, two tall looking gents, wearing dark suits and hats, plopped right on the seats in front of him, didn't take their hats off, didn't sink any further into their seats and even started mumbling to one another.

'Yo, do you mind?' came the obvious complaint from an avid moviegoer such as INH. It was not answered with sympathetic looks by the men who turned around. INH could now see that the men were looking very thug-like. It sure made him hope they were not mobsters or anything. He was afraid of mobsters, gangsters, crooks and the like. It also reminded him - although he didn't pay that much attention back then - that the experiment thingy back at the Center, from where he left, had something to do with emulating a mafia game. 'Nah, fuck dat', he thought to himself (although he was later mildly aroused by the gory death that happened to one of the people in the group), 'I hate mafia'.

'S-sorry', he was quick to apologise and try to move to another seat, but one of the men stopped him in his tracks, placing a solid hand on his shoulder, and then said, 'Don' worry 'bout it', and left without saying another word.

Nothing else happened until the movie ended; in fact, he did not even spot the two man anymore, once they left. Feeling that he drank too much soda, he stopped by the restroom on his way out. Once unwinding at the urinal, he heard a funky, familiar tune by Talking Heads in the speakers and thought that was a pleasant surprise.

A less pleasant surprise was the thug that stormed into the restroom, pulled a cleaver from inside the mantel he was wearing and carved it deep into the his head.

Well, at least you're consistent with the numbers' sequence... and with the faction.

insertnamehere, a mafiaphobe, has been lynched.
He was Patient 3, vanilla civilian.
It is now Night 2. You have 24 hours to send me any PM action.

Missing: none

One more hour.

insertnamehere wrote:the sample is just at the beginning of the track if anyone wants to see for themselves.

He hasn't reached my End o' Night Host Post...

linki: warmer...

insertnamehere wrote:I fully expect to see this in the next edition of Nervous Horse.

You know about Nervous Horse? Wait... who are you?

With a little under 12 hours to go, a reminder to some that there are some participation score guidelines.

Poll thread updated to reflect whose votes were missing.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:
Ricochet wrote:Probably not, but I have no advice except googling for advice (this is assuming you have Win10).
Thanks for looking it up, Rico.

I love it when these recommended fixes for a computer that cannot start up properly involve components that require the computer to start up properly (not blaming you Rico, just being cranky).

Dunno, can't you normally boot the computer in another mode that would enable to perform such repairs or access the command prompt.

I am lab dog at this, i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry

Search found 85 matches