Long Game 75: Alethi Politics

[Mat]

Time!

I’m not home right now, but I’m close; rollover will be a bit slow, maybe 30-45 minutes. So no on the VC, sorry :P. Can’t put that together right now.

[Ashbringer]

Whysper

I can do more than talk about tying the vote... and something's rubbing me the wrong way.

So a tie it is.

Edit: Nope, me and Mat posted simultaneously. Nevermind.

Edited March 30, 2021 by Ashbringer

[Mat]

Yeah, that doesn't squeak through  

[Mat]

Night Two: Damage Control

The oddest thing happened today. I can’t remember it at all! It’s as if my mind received a wash, the piece that contained the memory of the day’s events replaced with a blank slate. And neither can anyone else, it would  seem.

-Mishinah Bethab, wife of Highprince Bethab, 1173.7.5.4

Dannex walked out of the highprince’s conference hall, glad to get some fresh air. Those fools could sure be stubborn. 

As he walked, a crowd formed around him, obviously doing their best to look threatening. Dannex did not care, and kept walking.

“Where do you think you’re going?!” One of them yelled. 

“Over here.” Dannex said, as if it was obvious, because it was. 

“B-but we’re trying to intimidate you so you run away!”

Dannex raised his eyebrow in mock doubt and surprise. “Really? You aren’t doing a very good job of that.”

The crowd grew angry at this. One man said, “You better leave boy, or else we’ll have to resort to more...drastic measures.” As he said this, he not-so-subtlety moved his cloak to reveal a dagger strapped to his waist. 

Dannex laughed. “That little thing? Take a look at this.” He reached into his cloak and pulled out the InfinityGauntlet™️. He snapped, and dusted away half of the annoying group.

The crowd gasped in awe. They all cried as one “Oh glorious Dannex, how could we ever be suspicious of you. You are truly the most intelligent of us all, please, help us catch the traitors in our midst.”

But Dannex was having none of it. He looked at them, and said one word which both metaphorically and literally broke their hearts. “Nah.”

Dannex then flew away into the sunset, InfinityGauntlet™️ in hand, leaving the pitiful group behind. He then utterly destroyed the fourth wall, and proceeded to submit this Death RP to Matrim, who thought it was the single best thing he had ever read. He proceeded to proclaim that Dannex was the sole winner of LG75, and that the game was over.

El Fin

*   *   * 

Philico’s mouth dropped open. “No, no no!” he said, as Dannex flew off. “No! That wasn’t supposed to- what was-”

He was standing on a plateau, overseeing the warcamps. He had taken to micromanaging the situation this time instead of getting his own hands dirty, and that had proved to be… entertaining. And in this case, unexpectedly difficult.

He hadn’t realized how much ad libbing this side of the curtain contained.

Philico raised a hand to his ear, a gesture that was unnecessary but of good flavor. Calling all hordelings, he transmitted. Code Red! Gather emergency reserves. Major fourth-wall breaching and all manner of illegal activity. Commence damage control. Below, the hordelings he had stationed in case of an emergency got to work. The people that had been dusted were remade with the combined powers of CreateLings and UndoLings. The shattered hearts replaced with RegrowLings, the scattered pieces of the fourth wall replaced with StorykeepingLings, and most importantly everyone’s brain was given a good dose of ForgetLings and MemorywipeLings. It was a messy solution, but it was better than how Dannex had left it.

When it all was done, Philico sighed, sitting down on the rocks as the hordelings retreated. Below, the various members of each warcamp woke up in confusion.

Crisis averted.

---

Dannex has flown away been erased from everyone's memories! He was a Spokesperson!

Vote Count:

• Dannex (5): Elandera, Quintessential, Whysper, StrikerEZ, TJ Shade, forget me not
• TJ Shade (1): Araris Valerian
• Whysper (4): Archer, Dannex, Flyingbooks, Tani

The Night will end in 23.5 hours, on Tuesday March 30 at 5pm PST.

• Dannex himself wrote the first half of that, up until Philico's part  I wrote Philico and Mishinah's journal entry. Go upvote him!
• If it wasn't clear, the game is not over xD
• Get your actions in!
• Reminder that PMs are closed unless through actions.
• The marketplace is open!

Marketplace:

Spoiler

• Knife - 12 spheres
• Contract of Peace - 5 spheres
• Legal Document - 6 spheres
• Slipped Note - 3 spheres
• Armor - 7 spheres
• Spy - 6 spheres

Player List:

Spoiler

1. @Gears - Roko the Basilisk
2. @Random Bystander - the Random Bystander
3. @Ashbringer - Faleast
4. @Flyingbooks
5. Dannex - Spokesperson
6. @Quintessential - Lady Lumi Tominel
7. The Unknown Order - Obliteration - Highprince Vamah
8. @Araris Valerian - Ruthar
9. @forget me not - Cara
10. @Tani - Reva
11. @Archer - Filico
12. @StrikerEZ
13. @Elandera
14. Illwei - Highprince Aladar
15. @Whysper
16. @TJ Shade

Edited March 30, 2021 by Matrim's Dice
Order was alive in the player list :P

[StrikerEZ]

@Matrim's Dice Has TUO returned from the grave?

Anyway, Dannex was actually a Spokesperson. Okay. Cool. There goes all my reads.

[Mat]

Just now, StrikerEZ said:

@Matrim's Dice Has TUO returned from the grave?

Yeah, I caught that and ninja-edited. No, they have not.  

[Quintessential]

1 minute ago, StrikerEZ said:

Anyway, Dannex was actually a Spokesperson. Okay. Cool. There goes all my reads.

Uhhhh yeah same here xD

[+Whysper]

Oh man, how could Dannex be Villager and act like that?? Does he always play this way?

[Quivil]

Kill Whysper!

[StrikerEZ]

2 minutes ago, Quintessential said:

Uhhhh yeah same here xD

At least there were only 3 people that didn't vote. There's gotta be at least 4 elims, right? So, looking at the numbers, at least 1 of the people who voted must be an elim, right? That's how this works, right??

1 minute ago, Whysper said:

Oh man, how could Dannex be Villager and act like that?? Does he always play this way?

I mean, yeah basically, I just figured that he could actually be an elim this time, with how Araris and Elandera and then eventually Archer and Tani (plus other Whysper voters) were defending him. I guess I was wrong though.

[+Whysper]

9 minutes ago, StrikerEZ said:

At least there were only 3 people that didn't vote. There's gotta be at least 4 elims, right? So, looking at the numbers, at least 1 of the people who voted must be an elim, right? That's how this works, right??

Yeah, at least 1. Though I wouldn't be surprised if they split their votes knowing the wagons were V/V. So maybe 1 on each wagon.

EDIT:

18 minutes ago, Matrim's Dice said:

Vote Count:

• Dannex (5): Elandera, Quintessential, Whysper, StrikerEZ, TJ Shade, forget me not
• TJ Shade (1): Araris Valerian
• Whysper (4): Archer, Dannex, Flyingbooks, Tani

So looking at the wagons, my guess for Elims would be either Elandera or FMN on Dannex. Then either Books or Tani on my wagon.

Edited March 30, 2021 by Whysper
looking at wagons

[Quivil]

Who didn't vote? Nevermind I can figure this out on my own.

Edited March 30, 2021 by Tani

[+Whysper]

Actually I think it was only 2 people who didn't. Gears and Randby. I think we may have miscounted because of the vote manipulation.

EDIT: Oh wait, Ash's vote didn't go through at the end there.

Edited March 30, 2021 by Whysper

[StrikerEZ]

Okay, I'm curios about something. Here's the VC when Araris voted on TJ:

Dannex (1): Elandera, 
Araris (2): Quinn, Striker

...well, that tells me nothing really. I didn't realize how early it was when he voted for TJ. I guess I would just ask, @Araris Valerian, why did you not move your vote anywhere, even near the end of the day when it was fairly obvious that the candidates for the exe were either Dannex or Whysper?

[Araris Valerian]

6 minutes ago, StrikerEZ said:

Okay, I'm curios about something. Here's the VC when Araris voted on TJ:

Dannex (1): Elandera, 
Araris (2): Quinn, Striker

...well, that tells me nothing really. I didn't realize how early it was when he voted for TJ. I guess I would just ask, @Araris Valerian, why did you not move your vote anywhere, even near the end of the day when it was fairly obvious that the candidates for the exe were either Dannex or Whysper?

Because my vote didn't matter by that point. People were super fixated on Dannex and there was nothing I could do about it. Grinching Whysper instead wouldn't help, since everyone would still want to grinch Dannex regardless. 

[Quintessential]

Just now, Whysper said:

Yeah, at least 1. Though I wouldn't be surprised if they split their votes knowing the wagons were V/V. So maybe 1 on each wagon.

I wouldn't be surprised if one of the extraneous votes during C1 was an elim. Oh. Wait. There's only one of those, TJ : P and I'm reading him village. (that at least hasn't changed with Dannex's alignment).

Going back and looking through my notes, this time with Dannex's name in green... okay. The people who stand out most to me right now are:

Archer, not because of anything he's done or how he's voted but rather because of tone last cycle. I could see him being village, and just believing that Dannex wasn't a good exe, but I can just as easily see an elim knowing that the person he's defending is village and wanting to get credit for that. Actually, I can see that more easily, because of... something. Gut read, tone, what have you. 

One of Ash, Whysper, and Tani (the three people who voted on Dannex C1 who aren't confirmed village (for me, that is; I'm on there too : P)). Of the three, Tani seems normal to me (as in, the way she was in LG74). Whysper was the first to vote on Dannex and tbh I still don't think it felt like a vote that was supposed to generate a train, so not elimmy in and of itself. Since the next two people to vote on Dannex were Illwei (confirmed village) and Tani (who, as I said... idk, I could be super wrong about her but my gut says village), I have a hard time seeing it as an elim-generated train, which makes me think that any elims on Dannex C1 were later voters. So, me and Ash. But I know I'm village, so... Ash? I have to say, this is in line with MR48 Ash (he was elim then), but it could also be in line with village games that I'm forgetting due to confbias, so eh. Alternatively, Tani is elim and has been playing me for a fool, or Whysper is elim and just got lucky with starting the train.

Araris and Elan, still. As I said last cycle, Dannex flipping village was NAI for the two of them. One thing I will note, which just occurred to me and I can't believe I didn't think of this before: in LG74, Araris got... really indignant when I started attacking and voting Illwei, saying that I shouldn't be trying to vote off active players C1. Now, Illwei was his teammate in that game, but I highly doubt that his stance itself was faked (if it was, Araris, feel free to shout at me ). So... where was his hesitation to vote off active players--the very same active player--during C1 of this game??? I'd expect Araris to at least ignore a vote on a player like Illwei, but he responded by saying he agreed with my (not very strong) reasoning, and he voted her. I know meta arguments aren't always great but this is... I mean, pretty inconsistent with Araris in general, right? idk. The fact that I'm comparing to an elim game where he defended a teammate probably invalidates this somewhat, since we know Illwei was village in this game, but... well, it's not nothing.

Elan is also an idea--I'd somewhat dismissed her before because I thought Dannex was village, and since she was the first to vote Dannex, it didn't make sense for her to be his teammate. But now that he's flipped village, I'm back to my bad read on Elan's C1 vote. Not nearly as strong as the read on Araris though.

Not feeling great about Forge, but she's a new player so eh. Not worth pursuing unless we run out of other options.

Striker also... idk. The thing with the tie-not tie-tie thing C1 was weird but it's not... idk. I just don't know what to think about Striker. So I'm just gonna leave him alone for now, 'cause like... he deserves a game where he can play without suspicion for a bit, for once, amirite? : P 

So... as a closing of sorts:

Three people I'm least sus of: TJ, Tani, Whysper (?)

Three people I'm most sus of: Araris, Archer, Ash (?)

And everyone else I'm slightly suspicious of but not for anything concrete (though who are we kidding, I have nothing concrete on Archer or Ash either really : P)

[+Whysper]

5 minutes ago, Quintessential said:

Three people I'm most sus of: Araris, Archer, Ash (?)

Haha, wouldn't it be something if we had an Elim A-Team going on.   Then maybe tack on Elandera since her name at least ends with A.  

[Quintessential]

7 minutes ago, Whysper said:

Haha, wouldn't it be something if we had an Elim A-Team going on.   Then maybe tack on Elandera since her name at least ends with A.  

Oh xD I hadn't even noticed that... 

*Ed Sheeran starts playing in the background*

[StrikerEZ]

15 minutes ago, Quintessential said:

Striker also... idk. The thing with the tie-not tie-tie thing C1 was weird but it's not... idk. I just don't know what to think about Striker. So I'm just gonna leave him alone for now, 'cause like... he deserves a game where he can play without suspicion for a bit, for once, amirite? : P 

I appreciate this.

9 minutes ago, Whysper said:

Haha, wouldn't it be something if we had an Elim A-Team going on.   Then maybe tack on Elandera since her name at least ends with A.  

So, Araris, right? Am I doing this right?

[+Whysper]

Just now, StrikerEZ said:

So, Araris, right? Am I doing this right?

Araris does have the double A thing going, so he's probably the mastermind.  

[Archer]

Filico’s mouth dropped open. “No, no no!” he said, as Dannex flew off. “No! That wasn’t supposed to- what was-”

He was standing on a plateau, overseeing the warcamps. He had taken to micromanaging the situation this time instead of getting his own hands dirty, and that had proved to be… entertaining. And in this case, unexpectedly difficult.

He hadn’t realized how much ad libbing this side of the curtain contained.

Filico raised a hand to his ear, a gesture that was unnecessary but of good flavor. Calling all hordelings, he transmitted. Code Red! Gather emergency reserves. Major fourth-wall breaching and all manner of illegal activity. Commence damage control. Below, the hordelings he had stationed in case of an emergency got to work. The people that had been dusted were remade with the combined powers of CreateLings and UndoLings. The shattered hearts replaced with RegrowLings, the scattered pieces of the fourth wall replaced with StorykeepingLings, and most importantly everyone’s brain was given a good dose of ForgetLings and MemorywipeLings. It was a messy solution, but it was better than how Dannex had left it.

When it all was done, Filico sighed, sitting down on the rocks as the hordelings retreated. Below, the various members of each warcamp woke up in confusion.

Crisis averted.

***

This is gonna look great on my stat sheet.

MR49: Exed for being an NK target

LG75: Exed for defending a villager too much

In all seriousness, I understand the urge to suspect me. I certainly don’t expect to be cleared over this (although Bodyguard, if you want to send some protection my way tonight, I won’t say no…). After I decided I was going all in on v!Dannex, I went into my notes and wrote a post that basically said Hps, please activate Democracy and exe me by a wide margin, because e!Dannex’s flip would have looked so bad for me that staying alive would have been pointless.

In QF49 (debut game, only elim game) I proposed the theory that elims should try to get caught being right. It’s a good strategy, if done subtly. If you think something like that is going on, I’d rather you examine Araris, who spent the cycle dropping hints that they thought the Dannex was wrong, then didn’t act on it. But I’ll admit that in that QF, I was way too confident for an ignorant villager when I called flips. I’d like to think I learned from that game, and feel that if I were an elim again, I would have a more nuanced meta.

I’m still not entirely sure why I defended Dannex so hard. Part of it was definitely I had a strong read on them. They’re an easy misexe, and I saw the signs that the elims didn’t care if they died. Had I been on, their claiming Spokesperson would have made me pause, because it was a bad look to ostensibly not self-pres, but really self-pres with manipulation. Vote manipulators are the bane of my existence. On that note, I’m trying to figure out how to increase my thread power when I don’t have an extra vote. My ideal position is to be someone who can influence who gets exed in a meaningful way without getting killed for it. I think taking independent stances and engaging with people as they question it helps me and the village to get information, so it’s a thing I like doing.

Quick notes before bed, then I’ll do proper analysis if I survive the night:

-Ashbringer is taking a page from Devo’s book this game with his vote timing. Very Machiavellian.  

-The Dannex train makes sense to me because they never positioned themselves to be village read, but it also didn’t make sense to me because I read the facts differently. Sus on Elandera, Quintessential, Whysper, StrikerEZ, TJ Shade, and forget me not for voting for them.  

I respect, however, when people dug themselves into holes defending the Dannex wagon. An elim would know they’re villagey and not want to take the fall for it. And if they saw it had opposition, there were safer options. Whysper’s vote is self-pres, Quinn really fought for it, TJ and Forge jumped on when they didn’t need to, and Striker I already village read. So my guess is Elandera is the most likely elim of that group. But you should all be ashamed of yourselves.

-Forge voted with zero reasons. Randby said ‘convince me’. Noted. I respect the desire not be wrong, but it devalues the public discourse if nothing that was said over two days was enough to make you lean one way or the other.

-TJ’s Flyingbooks sus is noted. I’d prefer to find the most connected and vocal elim first and probably won’t pursue it next round, but TJ seems level headed. As much as an active GM can be.

-Is it hypocritical to try exing Whysper tomorrow? I just advocated against always hitting the runner up of a day, but I feel better exing them than Dannex. I’ll probably be looking at Araris, Elandera, and them D3.  

[Araris Valerian]

35 minutes ago, Quintessential said:

in LG74, Araris got... really indignant when I started attacking and voting Illwei, saying that I shouldn't be trying to vote off active players C1. Now, Illwei was his teammate in that game, but I highly doubt that his stance itself was faked (if it was, Araris, feel free to shout at me ). So... where was his hesitation to vote off active players--the very same active player--during C1 of this game??? I'd expect Araris to at least ignore a vote on a player like Illwei, but he responded by saying he agreed with my (not very strong) reasoning, and he voted her. 

Ummm, yeah, you got me. I think the largest difference between this game and LG74 is how much time I spent/am spending behind the scenes. I definitely agree with everything I said in LG74 about this tpoic, although I would also say that I overstated my opinions because a teammate was on the line, and maybe because it gave me a chance to throw shade on you, a potentially major village threat. I've been a bit more reactive this game, which has made it easier to lose sight of playing strategically past the first cycle. But I guess I owe Illwei an apology, not for killing her, but for being a hypocrite as I did it .

I think Tani might be my greatest suspect at this point. I'm not sure I like the vote on Whysper or the timing of the switch to Dannex.

I also feel like Quinn has been too... happy? Not sure what I've been getting there, or if it is AI at all, but it's something I've noticed.

29 minutes ago, Whysper said:

Araris does have the double A thing going, so he's probably the mastermind.  

Well, I actually have a quadruple A in my full username. Maybe I'm actually the only elim in the game since I have all the A-power .

[Ashbringer]

51 minutes ago, Quintessential said:

I have to say, this is in line with MR48 Ash (he was elim then), but it could also be in line with village games that I'm forgetting due to confbias, so eh.

... I was also really busy that game (even before I had to drop out), so I would say that's more likely the similarity. I'm just cursed with busyness when I'm also an Elim... It's also just easier to remember to get on right before/after rollover.

I'll probably be around more once the MR ends... unless I end up running the QF. Then who knows.

[StrikerEZ]

6 minutes ago, Araris Valerian said:

Well, I actually have a quadruple A in my full username. Maybe I'm actually the only elim in the game since I have all the A-power .

We got 'em boys. Just all gotta vote Araris. I'm keeping my vote on him, anyone gonna join me?

Anyway, in terms of who I might be looking to exe tomorrow, I think I'd be down to go for any of Araris, Elandera, or Whysper. I still trust Archer, though I worry that his defense of Dannex was a ploy to try and get village cred. But he's being reasonable again in his latest post, so I'm village reading him again. 

Also, I recommend that the Highprinces vote for Democracy! next. Getting the half price items the turn after the natural highstorm gives everyone another 2 spheres seems like a good way to get some items in the hands of the players. 

[Mat]

56 minutes ago, Archer said:

Filico’s mouth dropped open. “No, no no!” he said, as Dannex flew off. “No! That wasn’t supposed to- what was-”

He was standing on a plateau, overseeing the warcamps. He had taken to micromanaging the situation this time instead of getting his own hands dirty, and that had proved to be… entertaining. And in this case, unexpectedly difficult.

He hadn’t realized how much ad libbing this side of the curtain contained.

Filico raised a hand to his ear, a gesture that was unnecessary but of good flavor. Calling all hordelings, he transmitted. Code Red! Gather emergency reserves. Major fourth-wall breaching and all manner of illegal activity. Commence damage control. Below, the hordelings he had stationed in case of an emergency got to work. The people that had been dusted were remade with the combined powers of CreateLings and UndoLings. The shattered hearts replaced with RegrowLings, the scattered pieces of the fourth wall replaced with StorykeepingLings, and most importantly everyone’s brain was given a good dose of ForgetLings and MemorywipeLings. It was a messy solution, but it was better than how Dannex had left it.

When it all was done, Filico sighed, sitting down on the rocks as the hordelings retreated. Below, the various members of each warcamp woke up in confusion.

Crisis averted.

what

what are you doing 

Philico is going to have some choice words with you at some point