Okay. Here I am. Busy morning and I'm still a little peeved about my post disappearing last night. Anyway. You guys have chosen to look at me in a bad light and are "leaning" towards me, so hope for myself is failing, but like I said, I'll fight it to the end. Honestly, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills, or I'm like that dude in the cartoon that keeps seeing the dancing frog and no one else does: no one else sees what I see simply because I know I'm not bad, but I'm being screwed by the baddies and will probably die for it. Here's how.
Lot wrote:For Esther and Pilate to be bad means that they had to have planned a long time in advance that this is how it would look if one of them came back bad. Which would be a really clever move well played. But Esther's defence here of Rahab also looks a bit like she is teamies with Rahab.
Lot, as crazy as it sounds, this is exactly what I believe has happened here, or something like it. I'll defend myself in the two ways I know I can: my play, and explaining what I believe how the baddies have used Pilate as "insurance."
Lot, you said yourself you'd bet money (or something like it) that you know who I am behind the sock. If you're right, then you know that I am not a clumsy baddie. At all. My asset to my team when bad is to stay as inconspicuous and unnoticed as possible without being absent. Voting the way I have for what look like obvious "baddie saves" is far from inconspicuous - it's so obvious it hurts. As I've mentioned before, I vote for what I personally see as bad, and sometimes that's not what's popular in the thread, and this means I may miss the baddie du jour at one point or another. Here as a civ, you're damned if you hop on a bandwagon, you're damned if you start a civ lynch, and you're damned if you go off and vote your own thing without support. Voting the way I have away from others also draws attention to me, something I work my damnest not to do when working with a baddie team. But that's if you know who I am. Enough about me - let's do some roleplay

with part II of my defense.
Let's put ourselves in the shoes of this baddie team from the beginning. They did quite well at the start, allowing 10 people to die before Uzziah, who blatantly stated he was "rooting for the baddies" in the thread. Looking good. But then Ruth is lynched the day after, and by Day IX, although several non-heathens have died in the wake, 3 out of a team of 5 baddies are stoned out of the their minds, leaving a trail to catch who's left hiding in the thread.
Enter Judas, killing in Chapter X. From a behavior and voting standpoint, this is the logical place where Pilate was recruited, and at a great time - his voting record beforehand is pretty good for a civ, votes for both Uzziah and Mordecai. As I mentioned before, his posts changed largely from uninvolved and strangely unlogical enough to garner attention:
Chapter IV:
Pilate wrote:I'm shocked that I don't have more suspicion by now. So this is the life of an unforgivably low poster.

Chapter VI:
Pilate wrote:What happened to the night? We lynched Uzziah, and went straight into another lynch?
(Read the tone in his posts pre-Judas for yourselves. A pattern of not paying much attention to the happenings, coasting on others' suspicions, and suspecting himself)
To suddenly a lot less conspicuous and a lot more involved and informed:
Chapter II (Second Mafioso)
Pilate wrote:Lot wrote:Pilate wrote:Lazarus wrote:Voting LOT
Agreed.
Sorry Isaac.
So, now that we know Isaac is good, you are going to lynch the person who you claimed was HIS baddie teammate...
Also the person doing the examining of potential vote trains to try to save Ruth and Mordecai while lynching Isaac...
What sense do you even think this makes on any planet?
Why are you going after me, Pilate? Because before I thought you were just someone who wasn't reading the thread, but now I'm really wondering what's going on.
I am reading, and I believe I commented before on my suspicion of you. Your posts and your "rationalizations" only make me suspect you more... for instance, you're trying to gain cred by referencing your support of Isaac. It's only the baddies who would know 100% that Isaac was not bad, and you sound like someone who expected credit for being right about him. Like it was your plan to bask in a little more trust because you knew who's a Civvie and who's a baddie.
*voting Lot*
Since you're "really wondering what's going on", that's what's going on. I am voting for you to be lynched.
He also repeatedly refers to Absalom's "impeachable" comment and his previous vote record to garner support for himself (a bit jokingly, but it does its job by planting the thought). My point about his behavior is this: at first, I saw his weirdness and proclivity to point out his own weirdness as baddie behavior, but I changed my mind upon looking at his vote record. After Judas, he drops pointing out his oddities from the beginning and seems to get a lot more involved by reading the thread and serious about playing, something that would indicate that he now has a new team to play for and pay attention for. His vote record becomes a hell of a lot less nice, until Esther. Hold that thought.
Back to Chapter X. Ruth is also resurrected at this point with some confusion for us as to whether or not she was actually "Ruth" at the time, so it buys the baddies some time to sort things out and gives them a great voting record with their newest member. But there are major issues. Ruth is pretty much dead on arrival due to being confirmed baddie. Deborah had been taking heat for ages for being a drive-by player with a horrid voting record and is likely to be voted out soon (and is), and Esther had built what appeared to be a strong "case" on Pilate Chapter VII, but now he's on their team AND he has that voting record. So what does a dying devious baddie team do with Pilate? Uses him as "insurance."
Esther never lets up on her "suspicion" of Pilate, since it's her one big case she's actually posted. Sure, she lets it drop off a bit in conversation for a few rounds, but never lets it go completely and always has a "strong suspicion" of him. She had already planted the seeds in the thread before getting her teammate, but now it's about building either credit or insurance, depending on who's caught. Other people nibble at her bait in Chapter VII, but only one person actually bites and votes - me, because I genuinely saw his behavior pre-Chapter X as strange enough to warrant being a baddie. After that, I'm the only non-baddie who votes for Pilate (only Mordecai and Esther have voted him for the whole game). Fabulous distancing. Really impressive. And now, that can be used to the team's advantage. Can we say "scapegoat?"
Esther's only mentions of me in the thread were either non-committal or buddy-buddy: she agrees with my half-assed, half-baked car idea of Bathsheba's not being a replacement but just being a baddie lying low, and starts saying that I'm being "quiet but helpful" in the thread with nothing for her to worry about. Yeah, real helpful. Real helpful to her team. Because at this point, when we're down to the wire and only two baddies are left, the baddies now have a win-win, and a losing situation for me (and the civs) in any case:
1) Pilate and Esther are up against each other. Pilate is lynched; Esther looks fabulous and coasts to endgame. Rahab and the other civs lose.
2) Pilate and Esther are up against each other. Esther is lynched; Pilate looks fabulous, Rahab looks horrible for not going after his teammate harder, Pilate coasts to endgame. Rahab and the other civs lose.
3) Pilate and Rahab are up against each other. Rahab is lynched and flips civ; Esther continues to rally for Pilate, one is lynched, the other coasts.
You get the picture.
I understand how I look. I look horrible. The baddies have played me like a fucking fiddle and used me in their game, and they're playing the rest of you until the very end. I don't know what else to say other that good God, I am good and I want to win this game. I hope what I wrote above makes sense (I think it was a lot more eloquent and clear last night since I'm a night person, but I did my best to remember it). You guys point out things other confirmed (and essentially confirmed) civs have said regarding suspicions of Pilate. Go with that feeling, because he voted to get those people out. I won't be played by his team anymore. Voting Pilate. Hope you will, too.