Quick Fix 64: Spies in Starsight

[Kasimir he/him]

1 minute ago, Amanuensis said:

To vaguely respond to the rest, I’m kind of sitting at a Xino/Stick world currently. I feel like after LG91 she would be more punishing of his behavior unless they were teamed again? Stalling for time while she meticulously scans the Wiznik doc for info on who to kill?

Idk. I respect her play enough to pull that off. I’m pretty sure she fooled me in TJ’s Blackout game.

That still hinges on E!Xino.

I'm sort of at the place I think both E!Nerdy and E!Xino need a noisier teammate. I'm not sure if Xino quite cuts it because of the kill issue, but am not sure. It does feel less likely to be Stick in an E!Nerdy world (does E!Stick bus twice?)

But IDK - either way it is fairly apparent we are going to get a Nerdy flip today so I guess some of that is potentially just thought but I do think pressuring Stick is a good starting point tomorrow. I just do not functionally feel we are getting enough out of Xino/Nerdy in thread that will better inform us beyond their flips at this juncture. It's a harsh judgement to make, yes, but that's where I'm at.

[Mat he/him]

Like if we want to kill Stick today I’m fine with that

Feels a bit rude since she’s asleep but this way might be easier than if she were awake :eyes:

Edit: Nerdy today and Stick revisited tomorrow is fine too though

Edited December 22, 2022 by Matrim's Dice

[Kasimir he/him]

6 minutes ago, Matrim's Dice said:

Edit: Nerdy today and Stick revisited tomorrow is fine too though

Do you feel that way if another IC dies this cycle?

6 minutes ago, Matrim's Dice said:

Feels a bit rude since she’s asleep but this way might be easier than if she were awake :eyes:

Easier but if we can't hear her out, we also can't stop ourselves from a ML :eyes:

7 minutes ago, Kasimir said:

But IDK - either way it is fairly apparent we are going to get a Nerdy flip today so I guess some of that is potentially just thought but I do think pressuring Stick is a good starting point tomorrow. I just do not functionally feel we are getting enough out of Xino/Nerdy in thread that will better inform us beyond their flips at this juncture. It's a harsh judgement to make, yes, but that's where I'm at.

I should note that this judgement is based off their current level of engagement. If that changes, then yeah no kidding, I'm cool going elsewhere.

EDITED TO ADD:

@Amanuensis — Just saw your edit. I will say that I did like it, also in general just trying to decide how I feel about that given Stick started off with an early defence of Nerdy. That being said, she still feels different from in LG91 which is where I wonder how much difference the lack of exams makes. 

Edited December 22, 2022 by Kasimir

[Amanuensis he/him]

10 minutes ago, Matrim's Dice said:

Like if we want to kill Stick today I’m fine with that

Feels a bit rude since she’s asleep but this way might be easier than if she were awake :eyes:

Edit: Nerdy today and Stick revisited tomorrow is fine too though

You believe e!Stick voting every train but Xino's is a coincidence, then? I personally feel like v!Xino would low-key exonerate her. Especially if we're in an e!Nerdy world (unless relentless bussing is her plan). I'm with Kas in that I'd rather hear her out.

I clearly prefer Xino over Nerdy, but I'm not village reading Nerdy enough to judge Stick's alignment first.

(5) Nerdy: Stick, Xino, Unknown, Bookwyrm, Mat(t),
(4) Xino: Aman, Kas, Insanity, Hael, 

@Ookla the Unknown @The Bookwyrm why do you two prefer Nerdy over Xino?

Edited December 22, 2022 by Amanuensis

[Kasimir he/him]

I think the issue for me is that I find E!Stick an appealing possibility insofar as I'm increasingly dubious both in E!Nerdy and E!Xino worlds that the teams as proposed currently are coherent. Same as the NKA problem. If I look within the <Aman, Mat, Hael, me, Stick> set, with TUN as an outside possibility (TUN still presents some challenges IMO), then Stick is the one I'm more willing to revise on at this juncture. A lot of the work I'm doing is functionally to see if proposing E!Stick makes no sense given what we currently know.

I'd say it's at least possible, but the plausibility call is harder to make at this juncture.

I do want to comment on one thing though, and that's that I disagree E!Stick would let the Aman lynch go through.

She notes that she's win con centric enough to want to save Aman because Village.

But doesn't that apply to E!you too, @_Stick_? E!you knows MLing Aman doesn't further your win con, for the very obvious reason that IC!Aman asking to die screws the Village over badly. So E!you would rather ML anyone else who has a remote chance of being IC in comparison. The best scenario for E!you is to get off a ML and a kill on IC. So I don't know why it would be incoherent with not MLing Aman, especially since Aman wasn't suspecting you at that point.

Edited to add:

Right, sorry forgot to add - this is one reason I'd like to hear from Stick. Basically I want to get a sense of where to feel about the plausibility of this.

Edited to add 2:

I'm going to take a quick nap, as I have a presentation to give in an hour and a half. Probably won't be back until rollover if not a bit later, so I leave it in everyone else's good hands - don't let me have accidentally MLed Winzik or something >:(

Edited December 22, 2022 by Kasimir

[Amanuensis he/him]

11 minutes ago, Kasimir said:

I think the issue for me is that I find E!Stick an appealing possibility insofar as I'm increasingly dubious both in E!Nerdy and E!Xino worlds that the teams as proposed currently are coherent. Same as the NKA problem. If I look within the <Aman, Mat, Hael, me, Stick> set, with TUN as an outside possibility (TUN still presents some challenges IMO), then Stick is the one I'm more willing to revise on at this juncture. A lot of the work I'm doing is functionally to see if proposing E!Stick makes no sense given what we currently know.

I'd say it's at least possible, but the plausibility call is harder to make at this juncture.

I do want to comment on one thing though, and that's that I disagree E!Stick would let the Aman lynch go through.

She notes that she's win con centric enough to want to save Aman because Village.

But doesn't that apply to E!you too, @_Stick_? E!you knows MLing Aman doesn't further your win con, for the very obvious reason that IC!Aman asking to die screws the Village over badly. So E!you would rather ML anyone else who has a remote chance of being IC in comparison. The best scenario for E!you is to get off a ML and a kill on IC. So I don't know why it would be incoherent with not MLing Aman, especially since Aman wasn't suspecting you at that point.

Edited to add:

Right, sorry forgot to add - this is one reason I'd like to hear from Stick. Basically I want to get a sense of where to feel about the plausibility of this.

Right. That's a part of why I mentioned the TMI thing. If V!Fifth and v!Mat are ganging up on v!Aman, there's no reason for e!Stick to dive on any one narrative. I feel like e!Stick would use being a part of the soft village core to feel things out and see how Fifth, Mat, and I resolved things. Like you said, keeping options open. I feel that makes sense for why she'd immediately go Fifth after me too. Possible she hoped he was IC, since as you said, I wasn't. Bonus points for choosing Fifth over e!Xino, then v!Nerdy over e!Xino today.

Still, this theory would be significantly weakened by a v!Xino and e!Nerdy world. Just seems better to handle Stick after either flips.

ED1T:

@Kasimir, one more thing I remembered.

C2 EoD. When Stick voted Silver, Nerdy was currently in the lead, yes? Xino train had already shifted into my train with Fifth and Mat, I believe? If e!Stick, I don't know what that makes of Nerdy's alignment. It would be insane to make a tie between two of her partners. If nothing else moved and e!Nerdy died on a coinflip, the Silver voters would look bad. Stick/Nerdy most definitely isn't a team, I think.

Edited December 22, 2022 by Amanuensis

[Kasimir he/him]

7 minutes ago, Amanuensis said:

Still, this theory would be significantly weakened by a v!Xino and e!Nerdy world. Just seems better to handle Stick after either flips.

Basically yeah. 

That and the fact I would really like to have the black holes resolved - either way, it'd shed light on the voting IMO.

May not be the most optimal train(s)(?) but they're realistically what we're gonna get at this point in time, just gotta make the best use of it.

Edited to add:

7 minutes ago, Amanuensis said:

C2 EoD. When Stick voted Silver, Nerdy was currently in the lead, yes? Xino train had already shifted into my train with Fifth and Mat, I believe? If e!Stick, I don't know what that makes of Nerdy's alignment. It would be insane to make a tie between two of her partners. If nothing else moved and e!Nerdy died on a coinflip, the Silver voters would look bad. Stick/Nerdy most definitely isn't a team.

Fair point, but that's useful because if Nerdy flips E, that more or less clears Stick even more. When life gives you lemons...

Edited to add 2:

I should note something like that happened in LG82 with Araris but circumstances were quite different. Just felt it had to be said for the insanity of putting your partners in a tie  

Edited December 22, 2022 by Kasimir

[Amanuensis he/him]

I still have trouble with an e!Nerdy partner tho. I feel like I'd either need to buy into the TUN theory or Hael is a sly guy.

[Kasimir he/him]

1 minute ago, Amanuensis said:

I still have trouble with an e!Nerdy partner tho. I feel like I'd either need to buy into the TUN theory or Hael is a sly guy.

Sort of where I'm at. I could reintroduce Mat, I guess, but eh...

Sleep for real.

See y'all on the other side, or not.

Hopefully not, kill soaking for the greater good o7

[Mat he/him]

So I should vote xino.

Trust the evil donut! :P.

My biggest hesitance with a Stick/xino team is that they were just elims together which isn’t enough of a hesitance to get me to not switch. But I do like the e!Stick case and this seems like the best way to test that…?

If not then I’ll switch back, you guys need to tell me if I’m wrong cause so much of this is whoooooooshing over me right now xD

[Mat he/him]

Maybe I should just unvote and pray to RNG I don’t like being the deciding one again >>

[Kasimir he/him]

8 minutes ago, Matrim's Dice said:

So I should vote xino.

Trust the evil donut! :P.

My biggest hesitance with a Stick/xino team is that they were just elims together which isn’t enough of a hesitance to get me to not switch. But I do like the e!Stick case and this seems like the best way to test that…?

If not then I’ll switch back, you guys need to tell me if I’m wrong cause so much of this is whoooooooshing over me right now xD

I'm trying to sleep and I think I overdid it on the caffeine RIP

I can't tell you bro. You gotta decide for yourself. It's kind of like what you said on C1: I do agree I could very well be wrong. Nerdy isn't a V read for me so much as a null so I don't really care if he flips. I E!read Xino so I'm voting Xino.

I do think there are several reasons to favour Xino over Nerdy, but I also don't feel the case is so watertight that I'd care to campaign aggressively for Xino.

I'm fine with either flip, preference for Xino. But realistically, either one is info we need, and choosing between Xino/Nerdy is realistically what we gonna get rn.

Edited to add:

Right, sorry. I think there's a strong entailment from E!Xino to E!Stick, and a strong entailment from E!Nerdy to V!Stick. V!Nerdy doesn't confirm E!Stick, and V!Xino....running out of time ugh

Edited December 22, 2022 by Kasimir

[Haelbarde he/him]

Me right now trying to decide how I feel about last minute vote changes  

Spoiler

 

[Szeth Pancakes he/they]

And that's time! Step away from your bakes.

[Szeth Pancakes he/they]

QF64 Cycle Five: And All for Five Little Coins

Doncie Black had a good life. Everyday, he would wake up in their comfy middle-class home on Starsight Station, put on a hologram, and scam the everloving hell out of people.

“Steeeeeep right up!” he yelled to a dione passerby. “Try your skill!” They shook their head and continued on. “Sorry,” they said, drawing their lips into a line - the dione equivalent of a smile.

In front of Doncie were three opaque drinking glasses, turned face down and lined up in a row. “Try your skill!” he said again to a passing tenasi. “Only five Supercoins!”

The tenasi raised his eyebrows. “What’s in it for me?”
“If you win, I’ll pay you back tenfold!”

The tenasi narrowed his eyes at Doncie. Was that an expression of skepticism to them? Or trust? He couldn’t remember. “Sure,” he said finally, digging in his wallet and proffering five small, glimmering metal coins to Doncie.

Taking the coins, Doncie palmed them, then pretended to slide them under the cup in the middle. “If you can tell me where your coins are, you win.”

The tenasi looked confused. “That one…?” He pointed to the cup in the middle.

“Sorry, but no.” Doncie lifted the middle cup, revealing empty space inside.

The tenasi’s jaw dropped. “How…”

Doncie lifted the third cup, at the same time depositing the coins on the table beneath it. “I’ll give you one more shot,” he said coyly, putting the cup back down. Then, he began to switch around the cups, moving faster and faster until the tenasi’s eyes crossed trying to keep track of them. The coins rattled softly against the sides of their cup as Doncie’s hands slowed, then stopped.

“Now,” he said, “Where are your coins?”
The tenasi pointed to the cup on the left. He was correct, but as Doncie lifted the cup, he swept the coins into his hand. “Nope!” he said, masking the coins’ jingle.

The tenasi sighed.

“Thanks for playing!” Doncie said.

“You’re welcome,” the tenasi replied glumly. The citizens of Starsight were always polite, no matter how much they got screwed over. Doncie hated that. He hated everything about this scudding station. But where else was he supposed to go? Certainly not one of those “human preserves.”

The rest of the day was uneventful. Doncie made bank, as he always did. At sunset, he packed up his table – which folded into a small, compact bag, and headed home. He walked inside, shrugging off his jacket and boots. He tapped a few buttons on his wristpad, then looked around furtively. He knew there was no one in his house with him, but it couldn’t hurt to check before he deactivated his hologram.

“We know what you’ve done,” a voice hissed behind him.

“You… what?!” Doncie turned. A figure wearing all black was silhouetted against his doorway. The figure drew a knife from its belt. “I don’t hurt anyone. I’m not aggressive! What is this?!” 

“Justice,” said the figure, lunging for him.

 

***

 

“We did a sweep of the city,” said Faela. “Turns out there was a human posing as a dione street scammer in the Erven district.”

“Was?” Winzik replied. “So you…”

“No. He was already dead.”

-----

xinoehp512 was killed and executed! They were an SDPS Member!

 

Vote Count

Xino (5): Aman, Insanity, Kas, Hael, Mat

Nerdy (4): Stick, Xino, TUN, Bookwyrm

 

The turn will end on Thursday, December 22 at 9:00 PM PST (12:00 AM EST).

If @ExoticAlmond and @NerdyAarakocra do not post today, they will be killed!

 

Player List

Spoiler

1. JNV  - Jennal, a Tenasi diplomat - Inner Circle Member

2. The Wandering Wizard - Adding Fuel to the Fire, a figment who smells like smoke - SDPS Member

3. ookla the gastrointestinal / Dannnnnex - SDPS Member

4. @Ookla the Unknown / The Unknown Novel - delver

5. @Kasimir - Illvin Karrde

6. Just A Silvereye - John Johnson, an off-duty pilot - Spy

7. @_Stick_

8. @Ookla the Perpetual / The Bookwyrm - Hiari, a Kitsen diplomat

9. xinoehp512 - Doncie Black, a rogue human wearing a hologram - SDPS Member

10. @Ookla the Nerdy / Nerdy Aarakocra. - Bob McFondue, a licensed human owned by a Superiority politician

11. Devotary of Spontaneity - Kalli, [redacted], and [redacted], a Dione - Inner Circle Member

12. @InfiniteInsanity

13. @Haelbarde - Hal Vanicus

14. @ExoticAlmond

15. @Ookla the Tall / Matrim's Dice

16. Fifth Scholar - Ëarendil, brightest of mariners - SDPS Member

17. @Amanuensis - self

 

Edited December 23, 2022 by Szeth_Pancakes

[Haelbarde he/him]

Oh that's fascinating. Though it could be a really fun gambit, that seems quite suggestive of V!Mat(t) with an elim who is not one of Kas, Hael, or I think Aman, who were online at rollover, given elims had put in the kill on Xino and didn't see the last minute vote change.

[Amanuensis he/him]

5 minutes ago, Szeth_Pancakes said:

xinoehp512 was killed and executed! They were an SDPS Member!

Lmao what.

Did someone roleblock the NK?

[Szeth Pancakes he/they]

Just now, Amanuensis said:

Lmao what.

Did someone roleblock the NK?

Are you expecting me to answer this?

[Kasimir he/him]

3 minutes ago, Haelbarde said:

Oh that's fascinating. Though it could be a really fun gambit, that seems quite suggestive of V!Mat(t) with an elim who is not one of Kas, Hael, or I think Aman, who were online at rollover, given elims had put in the kill on Xino and didn't see the last minute vote change.

Yeah, that'd be my agreement.

What's interesting is the fact Xino was trending as CW nevertheless: do you flip the CW like this if expecting Nerdy to flip? This almost sort of implies dgaf?

Edited to add:

1 minute ago, Amanuensis said:

Lmao what.

Did someone roleblock the NK?

Bro. Killed and executed. He soaked both  

Edited December 22, 2022 by Kasimir

[Amanuensis he/him]

Just now, Szeth_Pancakes said:

Are you expecting me to answer this?

Oh no, sorry!

Was just a jest

[Szeth Pancakes he/they]

Just now, Amanuensis said:

Oh no, sorry!

Was just a jest

Oh good :3

[Haelbarde he/him]

Just now, Amanuensis said:

Lmao what.

Did someone roleblock the NK?

I think that's elims assuming a Nerdy execution, and decided they wanted to kill Xino for some reason. Only Matt changed votes so that Xino died to execution. 

But why kill Xino when they were so much under suspicion...

 

[Amanuensis he/him]

1 minute ago, Kasimir said:

Yeah, that'd be my agreement.

What's interesting is the fact Xino was trending as CW nevertheless: do you flip the CW like this if expecting Nerdy to flip? This almost sort of implies dgaf?

Edited to add:

Bro. Killed and executed. He soaked both  

Oh.

What.

[Kasimir he/him]

2 minutes ago, Haelbarde said:

I think that's elims assuming a Nerdy execution, and decided they wanted to kill Xino for some reason. Only Matt changed votes so that Xino died to execution. 

But why kill Xino when they were so much under suspicion...

That's basically what I'm wondering.

Do we go back to flipping Xino if Nerdy flips E? Is this what they feared: that we wouldn't? Winz!Xino theories?

1 minute ago, Amanuensis said:

Oh.

What.

Nvm tired go on  

I'm gonna see if we can colour in things now.

Edited to add:

@Haelbarde I am inclined to agree with you that they didn't expect the resulting softclear of the people online at the end.

Edited December 22, 2022 by Kasimir

[Amanuensis he/him]

2 minutes ago, Kasimir said:

That's basically what I'm wondering.

Do we go back to flipping Xino if Nerdy flips E? Is this what they feared: that we wouldn't? Winz!Xino theories?

Nvm tired go on  

I'm gonna see if we can colour in things now.

I'm just astounded by the situation. An extremely bold play. Especially if they weren't here near rollover, which... what?

Edited December 22, 2022 by Amanuensis