The Syndicate

Oh, I didn't get that, I was just confused.

Never seen a game fall of a cliff like that before. How can a wolf team target a dead player?

Four hours later, Long Con was rubbing three-foot-high letters on the wall in his own excrement, "WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS GAME?!"

"The issue folks are missing," thought Long Con, "Is that you can't target dead people in a Mafia game!"

Long Con realized that Martin had misinterpreted ts account's post. TS was indicating that he and Martin were the most widely townread players, not that they would be pushed for a chop.

The idea, of course, was faulty at the core. Long Con and Martin were the most townread players.

Long Con wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 1:15 am "Welp," said Long Con, rubbing his hand on his chin. "Certainly not the result I was expecting..."

Long Con awoke and checked the game.

Wow.

Fine.

[VOTE: trustworthy liberal] aubergine

"Welp," said Long Con, rubbing his hand on his chin. "Certainly not the result I was expecting. How does that happen? That's not even part of the game."

Black Rock, over his shoulder, said, "Was the post late? Maybe they didn't get a kill sent in."

"Ahh, perhaps," nodded Long Con, and he checked to see if the post was late. After some confusion, he realized that his timezone was set an hour off. Most likely a failure to remember to change settings when the time change came. Which made his previous post, "I guess it's nobody" silly, because the deadline had not yet passed. Had Epignosis sent out a reminder PM to everyone? Probably. Long Con made a mental note to go immediately from the PM to the settings when it came. Didn't he usually do that? He thought so. Maybe things got messed up when the board crashed. No matter.

It was a confusing result, but at least it seemed to be a boon for the town. Long Con couldn't think of a wolf plan that involved intentionally missing kills.

"I guess it's nobody," shrugged Long Con.

Who would die tonight? Long Con had a pretty damn good assumption.

Long Con considered. He truly didn't know why his third-person-narration style had garnered this level of towncred, but of course he wasn't complaining. It was the need to do something different, as he had been eliminated in the last two games for merely playing his regular town game. It wasn't something he wanted to keep doing beyond this game, though, because it did hinder the ability to have back-and-forths easily. Of course, having back-and-forths rarely ended well for Long Con. Perhaps next game, he would push even further away from the norm.

The wolves in this game were comfortable and complacent. The bar to be town-read was too low, and everyone was making the cut. If it were Martin, then he had earned the win, as surely as funnygurl had earned the loss of her life. But Long Con both didn't feel that Martin was bad, nor did he have any desire to go down that path.

At this point, it didn't feel like ts account.

Which left Wilgy, Marmot, and Trusty.

Long Con took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Marmot and Trustworthy Liberal. Those were the remaining wolves. Long Con was willing to stake his life, and the game, on it. Near guarantee that one of them was, at least.

He laughed to himself as he thought of the many times he had been absolutely dead wrong about everything.

It was a disappointing result, to say the least. It was definitely, as funnygurl had said, a bad case of "WIL". But who else was finding the wolves?

Was it sensible to carry out her final - and pretty much only - strong assertion, that ts account was a civilian? Without her vouch, TS was a prime candidate for the chop tomorrow.

The wolves were playing very well.

Long Con imagined a rainbow, and watched it blossom before his eyes...

Long Con
Martin
DrWilgy
Marmot
ts account
Trustworthy Liberal
funnygurl

Long Con looked at his watch... only ten hours left in the day.

Long Con woke up, got out of bed, stretched, and checked his phone. His brow furrowing in disappointment and slight incredulity, he dressed headed outside, where Aquileo screeched impatiently.

The griffin clawed at the ground, eager to fly, and Long Con couldn't argue. He hopped nimbly on to the creature's back, grabbed a handful of feathermane, and cried out "Hyaaa!" as Aquileo's powerful hind legs launched them skyward.

As they flew, Long Con considered the new posts in the thread. Once again, funnygurl didn't seem to be playing the game; she was playing Mikey. She had once again staked her opinion on ts account's locktowniness, and had offhandedly referenced points about Wilgy that she had never brought up before. Were these ts account's opinions parroted? Which "damning interactions" was she talking about?

A quick check of her ISO had not revealed the answer, but Long Con had seen something strange. Though funnygurl had instantly snapped a vote on nutella ten ten seconds after Joseph outed the red check, in post #752, she was putting her vote "back" on nutella. Back? Which implied that her vote had switched off nutella at some point, though she hadn't posted it in the thread.

Within half an hour she had jumped unquestioningly on board the nutella vote, secretly voted somewhere else, and decided to get back on nutella, publicly. That kind of behaviour did nothing to lessen Long Con's suspicion.

ts account's post had been uninspiring as well. The old mason claim joke. Why? Unexplained opinion on Marmot, and a suspicion on Martin that ran opposite to the thread majority opinion, and was as Day 4 hypocritical as one could imagine.

"Well, boy, I guess it's going to be another light Mafia day," grinned Long Con, scratching behind Aquileo's soft and pointed ears. "Let's go have an adventure instead!"

The griffin gave a shrill cry, and flew east, into the warm sunrise.

It seemed the game had been near-abandoned. Tutuu's death had left a whole in everyone's heart, and some, it would seem, were unable to recover from the grief.

Who were the wolves? Those that were not present in the thread? Those that currently had control of the thread and the poll? Was it even worthwhile to consider "what wolves would do" if it was as simple as Real Life Circumstances that caused the dip in activity?

The main posters today had all gained some esteem in the town column, but perhaps Long Con's perspective would change with the coming day, and more input from the silent players.

Long Con awaited Wilgy's case on TL with an open mind.

Where were the other players today?

Long Con found that he agreed with the last three posts in the thread, by Martin and Marmot, respectively. Voting funnygurl now would put her within one vote of a hammer. Long Con was comfortable with that, because he wished to see her chopped, and hoped that the last vote, if it were to hammer, would be cast with forethought and consideration. It should not be cast before funnygurl comes back, at least. That's rude.

[VOTE: funnygurl] aubergine

Marmot wrote: ↑Fri Nov 20, 2020 2:31 pm Joseph = MacDougall?

MacDougall wrote: ↑Sat Jul 11, 2020 5:46 am Okay MacDougall is gone now. My name is Joseph. I would appreciate you referring to me as such. I will be taking care of the username thing in due time.

Long Con tried his best to respect Joseph's wishes, though he knew he had made a few slip-ups here and there.

"Nice!" nodded Long Con.

How would nutella's teammates have reacted to Joseph outing the red check? They would have wanted to distance from her, quickly get on board with the side of justice.

Long Con was doubly impressed, and also excited for his own flip. Would he make endgame? Do unkilled players still get their image?

[Editor's Note: Long Con proceeded to gush about the level of quality in the artwork to the point that it became embarrassing. Ten paragraphs redacted.]

Long Con immediately regretted using the word "realized" twice in that sentence. Trustworthy Liberal would have a field day.

Martin had been upgraded from 'cool' to 'town read' with his latest activity. DrWilgy's reaction was nice as well, placing him up one slot in the rainbow list. Maybe two. He had been low to start, though.

That funnygurl response to ts account, "yeah i think lc's a hit," seemed only to exist to spur him on on the suspicion. She hadn't really mentioned Long Con at all anywhere else in the game. Not until her last post, just a few hours ago, which, once again, merely agreed with ts' LC suspicion. Long Con realized that this was likely a wolf supporting a pocketed villager's misguided suspicion, and realized he would likely vote for her at this point, or would, tomorrow, at least.

It wasn't as though he was likely to die at night.

"Farmot?" he thought. "Was that some unholy amalgamation of falcon and Marmot?" What a creature that would be. Trustworthy Liberal's statement was slightly sketchy, was he spewing Marmot town? And how did "I think TS is town" equate to "my entire D1 PoE flipped town"? It reeked of false and contrived despair.

The game seemed to be at a nadir, the careless hammering of someone who should not have been first in line at all had thrown the players into distress, most of all tutuu. Her manic swing from unassailable confidence to abject hopelessness was disturbing, and demonstrated that having a widely-accepted town read did not equate to reliable leadership. What did it matter, anyway? Surely she would be dead by sunrise.

So who was bad? Long Con still had the bad feeling that one or the other of funngurl and ts account were scum. Marmot... seemed pretty okay. Sometimes. A recollection of a scumlean kept Long Con from accepting a full townlean on Marmot. His entrance to the game still felt off.

Wilgy. Long Con would easily vote Wilgy, whose antics had already led to a Civilian death, with Wilgy holding up his hands in lukewarm mock dismay, hidden behind an unsympathetic shrug. Was there any redeeming quality about Wilgy's play in this game that would lead one to believe he was town? Long Con couldn't recall one.

Martin seemed cool.

Long Con read Marmot's post, and found himself nodding in agreement. He hadn't seen any implosion, he had seen falcon defending himself in a readably towny way.

"Wow," exclaimed Long Con flatly. "Hammer test, eh? I hope you guys are right about him."

He then turned away, trying to hide the tears forming in his eyes. funnygurl's words had wounded him deeply, and he knew that his vote was petulant and reactive, but what did it matter now?

[VOTE: funnygurl] aubergine

Wilgy's vote on Martin was strange, given that the response from ts account had indicated Martin was not a wolf. Why had ts account not corrected him?

The general thread opinion seemed to run counter to Long Con's belief that falcon was town. Perhaps Long Con had been taken in by wolf falcon's phony sincerity? It wouldn't be the first time, nor the last. The surety of the ladies' read on his wolfiness appeared much stronger than Long Con's tepid opinion, and it was hard not to get swept up in their fervor.

Was one of them a wolf, gleefully participating in the shared confidence of a civilian vote? If tutuu were a wolf, then she benefitted greatly from Alison's choice in the early days of the game. She had played the part perfectly, and her death tunnel post for nutella was too beautiful to consider doubting.

What of funnygurl? Possible wolf, riding a natural-seeming mindmeld into a strong pocket. Long Con could easily imagine a world where ts account and funnygurl were wolves together... hadn't there been some false masonizing that seemed to only be possible with some form of outside-the-game communication? funnygurl had instantly chosen ts as her mason partner, seemingly without catching up with the thread? How had that worked? Was their friendship so tight that it was a foregone conclusion that they'd choose each other?

These were the thoughts that kept Long Con's mind going back to those two players.

"Why do you believe that falcon is town?" she asked, packing some extra ammunition into one of the many compartments in her Kevlar combat suit. Her transformation from gorgeous young socialite into this assertive and highly-trained mercenary was still something Long Con was processing. He blinked, and looked again at the evening gown that had been abandoned on the dirty warehouse floor, and back to the combat suit, marveling at the way it conformed perfectly to her body, hugging every curve closely-

"Hey!" she said sharply, snapping her fingers in his face. "We. Don't. Have a lot of time here, so you need to FOCUS, and answer my questions!"

Long Con gave his head a shake, stammering for a moment. "I, uh, yeah, falcon. he uh, he just feels town to me."

"Just 'feels' town?" she grabbed Long Con's lapel angrily. "I'm gonna need you to do a hell of a lot better than that. Think!"

"Ok, ok, he... when he called out Nanook in post 186, I thought it was evidence of a towny perspective. It's part of the reason I voted Nanook, but I never thought-" he pushed her hand away, turning away and taking a breath. "I didn't want a villager to die."

"Ok." she said evenly. "What else?"

"I agree with his 188, to a degree. That TL post really looks nervously awkward. I know some players have argued that first-post reads are useless, but maybe if TL is bad we could look back at the discrediters?"

She crossed her arms. "Falcon."

"He shaded nutella in 427. That's pretty good. I agree with him on tutuu, look, I just find certain posts of his towny, ok? I don't know what else to tell you! I believe him when he says he's not scum."

She took a breath and stared into Long Con's eyes resolutely. "So do I."

It had been an eventful day, to say the least. It seemed as though Mac's Mason claim, and Nutella's guilt, were legitimate. Long Con had begun to have suspicions that tutuu could be a deep wolf, but her activity quality had pushed those feelings aside.

Meanwhile, Long Con, though his house had power back, was still without any internet but what his phone would provide. Still, it was better than nothing.

Hey everyone, I'm going to break character here for a sec can let you know where I'm at. Yesterday a wicked storm came through and branches came down, taking out our power lines. We had no power for about 20 hours, until about 4:30 this morning.

I didn't want to drain my phone's battery by playing mafia, and now I am beginning a new chapter in my life, starting school for the first time in forever , and I'll be in school 8 to 4, Monday to Friday. That includes today, so don't expect a lot from me in the next 8 hours.

I'm going to [VOTE: nutella] aubergine because Joseph, and I promise to get caught up and get back into it this evening. I'm on page 17 right now.

Long Con paused. He had not intended to imply that the mafia team knew who the masons were by default.

He struggled to recall why he had purportedly given that impression. Perhaps in reasoning that the mafia team would have a fake horse in the race? Which would give them a better angle from which to figure out the real masons than any vanilla town...

Long Con was dismayed by the chop result, and greatly impressed by chardonnay's drawing.

Why to lynch Nanook? There was no strong case. Just a few things that looked like they could be scummy in Long Con's opinion. His entrance into the mason claim game had been less than inspiring. FG town read was .. what? TMI? Just a casual read? Maybe. But it was there.

Were they the real deal? funnygurl had responded correctly to the mason check, corroborating ts account's claim. It seemed likely that the claim was either real, or that they were wolves together.

If they were wolves, and ts survived, then surely we would be tipped off when the nightkill failed to take one of them out. They would be exposed.

funnygurl had appeared! Long Con instantly wondered who her mason claim might be.

ts account was almost surely getting chopped this day. Long Con had a bad feeling that it was not the right move, but how can one speak a feeling? How can one guess the forbidden secret?

[VOTE: Nanook] aubergine

He set the pencil down tentatively, and then nodded his head as if to reassure himself. "This feels right."

"A legitimate attempt at fakeclaiming," she said, her tone making it clear that she would brook no argument. And yet, ts account had not done the most obvious thing that the "true mason" would do: cry foul against the original claimants!

Did this fact make ts more or less likely to be a wolf? Or is Alison the wolf for calling it legitimate when it was missing a key factor?

Trustworthy Liberal had voiced the same concern Long Con had been feeling: that the lack of concern over the hardclaim made ts account's mason claim - and their insistence upon it - seem very thin. What was the point of it? Alison's hardclaim had changed the game from the outset, and upon reflection, was becoming increasingly doubtful.

Was it paranoia that led Long Con to begin to doubt Alison's claim? Was tutuu merely a civilian pawn in a well-planned game?

The question was, is being called 'weird' really a bad thing? LC had long held the opinion that the weird were the more natural type of person, whereas those who were too 'normal' seemed only to be hiding their true selves, for fear of judgment.

Judgment, indeed, was on the menu today. With the reality that one among us would soon be gone, a sober and sombre air had crept into the thread, though the players did their best to keep things light.

TLib would be an easy choice. That early ping was hard for Long Con to shake, especially with a low-posting Day 1, but Trustworthy had done little to alter that view. Marmot was in the same boat, and falcon's jab at Nanook had felt right as well. TLib, Marmot, Nanook... these were the current choices for Long Con to masticate.

Long Con jumped up with a start, as Marmot kicked in the door of the thread with a steel-toed boot, splintering it beyond repair. Marmot began to shout inanities, seemingly uninformed or unaware of the true nature of the game he was in, or who was playing it. To some, this entrance might have been endearing, the bold and carefree brashness checking whichever towny checkboxes they might be trusting at the moment, but Long Con privately wondered if this might just be a more wolfy entrance for Marmot. The kind that covers sinister intent with false bravado...

Long Con observed tutuu's kind condescension toward nutella in amusement, knowing full well the dangerous beast that lurked beneath nutella's pleasant exterior. The idea that nutella was bluffing her eagerness to be masoned, perhaps based on the faith that the public declaration was intended to be a ruse, was delightful. Perhaps she knew how to play this kind of game better than she let on...

tutuu's insistence on funnygurl's guilt was infectious, and the idea that she could read a game to that advanced degree was one that Long Con was willing to support, but not if funnygurl failed to post at all. He knew all too well the pitfalls of such a plan.

A Seemer role! The edges of Long Con's mouth curled upward slightly for reasons known to some. Enrique's questions seemed fine on the surface, even towny, but what was the angle behind an "imperative to know"? Beyond a personal need for complete understanding of the game, which every player should ideally have, this statement from Enrique stood out as odd. Was he trying to imply some angle that is not possible in a simple game such as this?

A negative read! Long Con sank slowly into his chair, realizing his time of being universally town read was officially over.

"Don't even acknowledge it," he thought. "That's their problem, not yours!" He took a deep breath and continued reading.

Alison was progressing confidently. She knew, with her bold mason claim shining uncontested, that she was going to have to act quickly and decisively in order to get the town on the right track. She had the confidence of the people, and was already detecting the subtle flavour of wolves feeling intimidated, a tang in the air that only the rising fear of cowards could produce.

tutuu was yet to reappear since the early mason bombshell had gently ripped through the thread. One could only assume that tutuu would confirm the clear and calculated claim before long.

Then there was Wilgy. Standardized, stale entrance. Off-topic talk, with a dash of humour and a touch of self-deprecation - a search for pity, perhaps? Long Con furrowed his brow, unimpressed as he marked Wilgy downward. Not a great first impression.

He awoke to see new posts. "Alison and tutuu town masons?" He thought, "I wonder if they'll pick me as their third!" Truly though, it seemed unlikely. Long Cons were not known for their stable longevity.

That town read from Alison, though. The last time he and Alison had been wolves, she had townread him, but those were... unusual circumstances.

It was a rocky start to the game. "I'm glad the broken forum was mended promptly," thought Long Con. "Look at nutella, commenting on a board issue with her first post. Does it mean anything?" He chuckled to himself. "Silly, you just did the same thing!" He shook his head at life's little ironies.

Tutuu had staked her claim on her usual role card. "One of these days," mused LC, "She is going to roll scum and no one will know what to do with it."

An eyebrow arched. TLib had proclaimed 'let's go" TWICE in their opening post. Was it a touch of nervousness? Time would tell...

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