Micro 574 — Space Invaders Mafia 4 — Game Over

[Ranger]

Bulbazoor has not posted in 48 hours and has been prodded three times. I am now searching for a replacement.

Not anymore! :D

I'm here, will take a while to read, shouldn't be too hard, though depending on the timing of the Not_Mafia shot he might've been shot too soon to get reliable reads. I'm about to embark to find out!

[Ranger]

Oh, right, there's only three names to sort, that makes it even easier. Please hold, got a reputation to uphold if it's RC or Errant. :P

[Ranger]

{Errantparabola}
{Dewy}
{RadiantCowbells}

Quick look at the first 30 or so posts gives me this. RC comes across as insincere, Soren's alright, Dewy gave mixed signals, so Errant's standing at nulltown, Dewy at null, RC at nullscum.

[Ranger]

{Dewy}
{Errantparabola}
{RadiantCowbells}

This by five.
I think 3dice was right about Dewy. Haven't honestly checked to see if 3dice was nightkilled or lynched, just know he's not alive and not replaced, but it doesn't matter either way, I feel good about trusting him there.

I'm also continuing to get bad vibes from a

lot

of RC's posting, so, uh, yeah.

VOTE: RadiantCowbells.

[Ranger]

Every RC post I read makes me more confident it's him.

274 in particular.

I happen to know RC will bus a scumbuddy he perceives as weak.
Not_Mafia he perceived as weak.
With this being a micro, he would need somewhere to go, a deathtunnel, after the flip of his partner.
And that looks like setup for it.

[Ranger]

So reading through page 23...

I get strong deja vu.

And I mean: STRONG deja vu. This, in regards to RC.
If I'm wrong, then it could actually be Dewy thanks to Dewy's Not_Mafia defense, but RC's acting literally the exact same way he did as Viva.

[Ranger]

The promise to blacklist in 598 is also textbook scum-RC.

[Ranger]

So I read through page 30.

I'm

reasonably

confident this is a town-Errant based on that early catch-up, but I have to read everything to be sure: sometimes, Errant can slip through the cracks and is only exposed as scum from one, usually lategame, egregious move. I'm pretty sure Errant's town right now, but I need to see everything and make sure that doesn't happen to confirm.

[Ranger]

BTW, town!RC would have easily figured out I was town btw.

Like, I have obvtowned the shit out of this game.

This is true, btw.

BBT is the Titus of this game: he was obvtown. I'm expecting he got lynched or lasered, though. Probably on day two, since I'm expecting when reading to see beeboy (who was also clearly town) be the D1 lynch.

[Ranger]

BBT's also right in 912: the narrative wasn't BBT backing off at the most opportune moment.

It was RadiantCowbells backing off at the most opportune moment.

[Ranger]

I'd also like to point out: when there was an L-1 wagon on RadiantCowbells (and yes, that existed at one point), Not_Mafia did not hammer...in spite of posting in-thread.

I repeat.

L-1 wagon.
Prior to the laser shot.
On RadiantCowbells.
Which Not_Mafia

was not on

.

[Ranger]

If you're wondering where that happened: look at the time stamps (and what Not_Mafia is quoting) on page 17. RC placed himself at L-1. 3dice, on the Radiant wagon, hopped off, but it was at that point Not_Mafia could have hammered. He didn't.

[Ranger]

I promise you EP.
if Beeboy is scum he will get lynched.
BBT may not. He is top priority. I don't trust you guys.

I'm going to blow your minds.

You've seen TheCow's play. He will get lynched at some point. We do not need to be personally involved in his lynch.
We need to lynch Titus, today, immediately, because it otherwise

will not happen

because half the town is in love with her and her scumbuddies are hard defending her.

Guess what alignment he was that game?

(Hint: not deathtunneling town.)

[Ranger]

1011 is literally what he said verbatim about Titus, too. It'd take a while to find the exact quote from that game, but if you search his iso for Titus, you'll find it eventually.

[Ranger]

Know what?
Just read the link I gave you.

Yes

, I know it's long. It'll be tedious to read. Isoing RC is never easy. But

trust me

, you'll want to read it. He was scum that game. Compare what he's said that game to the things he's said this game. They are, quite literally, identical word for word in not one but SEVERAL places. He's the last scum.

[Ranger]

NM didn't fight his lynch; it definitely looked like he was being bussed.

This is true!

Guess who's the player best fitting the profile of bussing?

[Ranger]

1196 is also good, and I'd like to add: it would only be necessary to have two players protect at night, because we have one scum dead. Since both players could not be scum, at least one protection would be legitimate and therefore could not fail. So by asking three players to target Apricity, we'd be wasting an extra shot per night.

[Ranger]

Urg, really wanted to get caught up on the game, but I have to stop. I'm exhausted, falling asleep at the keyboard exhausted. In that state, I can read, but I can't actually process.

[Ranger]

RC is a good scum player and I'm sure he has an easy time replicating his town meta as scum.

Errant.

RC played that game as a then-secret

alt

.

It was made public before the game's end, but for the entire time he tunneled Titus that game, the alt was secret. He had no reason to replicate his town meta as an ALT.

In my opinion an RC kill loses us the game

Not possible. I have my protection left, and we've got both the laser for today and the lynch if you doubt this.

but how do you know NM has a propensity towards hammering town as scum

It's called "common sense".
Not_Mafia was

scum

.
Coordination on protections had not yet been arranged.
A successful nightkill on the laser wins scum the game.
Going into night, before the laser could shoot, and before the town could coordinate protection, would be so immensely pro-scum that the ONLY reason not to do so is if they're sacrificing something, say...a scumbuddy.
Furthermore, Not_Mafia knew he was under suspicion. He was going to get lasered or lynched. So why not hammer, robbing the town of much-needed things (town-directed laser, town-directed protection)? There is no answer except RC being Not_Mafia's scumbuddy, and Not_Mafia knowing if he lynched RC, he'd be doomed to die.

And I've played with town RC.
Ranger have you played with town RC?

I can near-guarantee you I'm more familiar with RC's meta than

you

are. Practically every game of mine (and I've had like 35 games or so) has had him in there, most of them town.

[Ranger]

I'm starting to understand why Bulbazoor got replaced.

This game's at a crawl. :/

[Ranger]

ranger, anything from your conclusion of your read?

I slacked off and never finished it.

I wouldn't object to a Dewy shot, but I'm still almost positive it's RC.

I should read the rest of the thread to confirm, but I don't think anything I find, nor any amount of rereading, will change this conclusion.

[Ranger]

I have been lynched *once* as scum in the last two years, and it took two of my teammates hard bussing me because so many people townread me so viscerally AND me having counterclaimed and lynched a town PR, and intentionally flubbing my reads because my partner wanted me to hurry up and get lynched.

And that's the thing.

Your play here looks like that level of caliber scum play: widely townread, hard to target, yet actually scum.

It's like I said. It might be best to shoot Dewy: you're pushing Dewy as scum, Errant's pushing Dewy as scum, and if I'm wrong about you being scum, then Dewy would in fact be my pick for scum. A Dewy death either ends the game in victory or forces both you and Errant to look elsewhere, and me seeing that would also help me. But personally, I still feel you're the most likely scum here.

[Ranger]

A Dewy death either ends the game in victory or forces both you and Errant to look elsewhere, and me seeing that would also help me.

Is there anyone who disagrees with this?

If not, then it should probably happen, given the stalled nature of the game.

[Ranger]

By the way: I'm not sure when the best time to mention this would be.
But if Dewy is lasered and flips town, then we can afford to no-lynch if you have trust in me.
I still have my protection left.
This forces scum to either kill one of us (in which case, that's a suspect removed and tomorrow is 3P lylo where you have a 50/50 shot), narrowing the scum pool down by one...

...Or, if they no-kill, then we have the laser to bring us down to 3P with a town-directed kill, and the same thing happens then.

I mean, statistically it wouldn't be that much more helpful than if Dewy flips town and we lynch today. But by the numbers, overall, we do come out ahead from it I think?

My math goes:
-Laser Dewy. If game's not over, 4 are alive, 3 uncleared. To each uncleared, there's a 50/50, but no additional information. From the laser's point of view, it's 33/33/33. If there's a mislynch, 3p night = mafia win short of successful doc wifom.
-Laser Dewy. If game's not over, no-lynch. If scum nightkill one of the uncleared (as they still cannot kill the laser), then we go into 3p mylo. To each uncleared, the other is guaranteed scum. To the laser, it's now 50/50. 100%/50% is better odds than 50%/33%.
-Laser Dewy. If game's not over, no-lynch. If scum no-kill, we go into 4p mylo. To each uncleared, there's a 50/50...but we have a town-controlled laser shot to off the scummiest remaining of the three. If THAT doesn't end the game, we THEN enter into a 3P lylo, with the above numbers: 50/50 for the laser, and 100% for the uncleared.

So, that's why I'm claiming now.
Moot point if Dewy flips scum, obviously, but relevant if he does not.

[Ranger]

Define "textbook scum-RC."

As in, I've seen him do it as scum every time he's been scum, and the closest I've seen to him doing it outside of being scum was him modding.

He does not actually blacklist people for such trivial offenses, least of all for acceptable plays like what beeboy had done.

[Ranger]

And for what it's worth, if there's any lingering doubt about me:

Ranger, you forget the 2-shot NK.

'Forgot' implies I knew in the first place. I looked at the role PMs on the first page and had absolutely no clue what you were talking about until reading the Aliens role PM thoroughly, because I was under the impression they had a normal nightkill. The detail about their 2X kill is a small minute detail, hidden and obscure, which I had not seen when reading the setup. So, it's a genuine townslip on my part.

Doesn't mean much, since I have a recorded history of faking townslips as scum, but in this case it

was

sincerely a mistake on my part.

[Ranger]

I thought he sounded more like he was talking *at* town in a speech-like manner in order to persuade rather than having the main purpose of trying to figure things out.

I kind-of was? I've spoken mainly, in general, to the town, with some specifics addressing Errantparabola, and also some addressing you.

How does me being alive have anything with Ranger's alignment?

Confirmation bias.

[Ranger]

@Ranger Clarify how BBT appeared obvtown to you.

He singlehandedly forced the Not_Mafia laser through. That was NOT scum double-bussing, which in this setup would be suicidal, and the thoughts that he would have been were folly. His tone was arrogant, but in a way conveying strength and confidence that he should never be lynched because he was clearly town in his eyes. He was certain he had the game locked down. He raised many, MANY valid points. This, just off the top of my head from memory. If you had asked earlier, the list would have been even longer.

[Ranger]

You've played lots of games with RC right?
Have you seriously never seen a game with townRC where his play matches the play in this game?

There's no game with an exact comparison to his play right now, at least none that are finished. His play prior to right now, earlier in the game? I can't recall any town. Maybe they exist, but I don't remember them.

[Ranger]

RC, so ranger is basing her perception of town you off of one game?

Wrong. Excluding here, I have 11 games with RadiantCowbells or a known alt, and of them, only 2 are ongoing.

That's NINE completed games.

[Ranger]

I don't think meta is the best way to read someone.

My read on Radiant is also not meta.
Radiant fits the profile of scum.
I've laid out why. He pushed Not_Mafia as scum, but only strategically. In opportune moments, he pursued other players when convenient. At a key stage in the game, Not_Mafia had the chance to hammer Radiant before Apricity could get off a shot and night actions be coordinated, yet he did not.

Meta is what I'm using to point out RC's actions aren't town. Not what I'm using to say RC's actions are scum.

[Ranger]

@Ranger Why hard defend your "townslip"?

I didn't?

I pointed out that it was a townslip.

In the interest of full-disclosure, I mentioned that it might not mean as much as it should because I have faked a townslip as scum. (The faked townslip in the link was saying scum could coordinate in their PT to shoot when by the setup, scum had no method of talking at any point in the game. It got noticed by the dead town, but was completely glossed over by the living.)

[Ranger]

But Ranger's 'LET'S NL' idea is so awful as well.

A lot less awful when you come from the mindset of being a doctor with a protection left and being under the impression scum can therefore not kill the laser no matter what so long as I'm not lynched.

[Ranger]

"Mixed signals" does not and should not equal "null"

Does not automatically mean null? Sure! Mixed signals can mean 80% town, 20% scum, or it can be 75% scum, 25% town. Works the other way too, though: mixed signals

can

in fact mean null if the mixed signals are close enough to 50/50. Ambivalence is still a form of null-read, just instead of "I've got nothing on this player", it's "I've got an equal amount saying scum and town on this player". And when most people use the term "mixed signals", they are probably saying this.

My read on Dewy was, at the time, null. I was receiving mixed signals. With time, this grew to be a townread, but not an absolute townread because Dewy

was

defending Not_Mafia in a way suggesting he was a possible partner. I concluded it unlikely, but not impossible.

What happens when the subject of that deathtunnel dies? Jump to another deathtunnel? If RC were scum that wouldn't fly with town.

No, RC would layer on the AtE about how much he sucks, how much he wants to be dead, how uncertain he is, and/or maybe buddy one town player.

I never finished my readthrough of the game. How much of the above did RC at one point do, after the mislynch?

Claims that she still has her protection left in 1624 and then later speaks of it as if it were the first time she claimed in 1649

I...had no memory of having claimed in 1624. Really, really none. But I suppose, strictly speaking, that reinforces the townslip?

[Ranger]

1. Ranger wants to avoid committing on a Dewy read despite things that potentially point to Dewy scum.

Not true.

My read on Dewy evolved.

It started as null.
It moved to town.
It moved back down to townish.
Then it moved sort-of back up, to probably but not absolutely town.
Where it stayed until just now, when Dewy died. My stance has been crystal clear: I was fairly confident Dewy was town. There were some things that made me not absolutely sure, namely, Dewy's Not_Mafia defense. These signs that indicated Dewy could be scum weakened what otherwise would have been a rock-solid townread.

(Also, I made a math error. I'm not sure if it's 11 or 12 games with RC, but it's 3 ongoing. Not two.)

she prioritized a whole bunch of games above this one.
wow.

No, I didn't.

I post in games as I see them.

To be frank, I'm in enough Micros that sometimes, one slips through the cracks. I missed this game.
Someone in another game could easily make the same observation about me tomorrow, with me posting in here and all others, but having missed that game.
This is by far not the first time I've missed or almost missed posting in this game.

I come when I see new content.
Sometimes I miss things. Especially given the maftigers skin is orange and the little note thing for new posts is also colored orange, making it harder to spot which threads have new posts and which threads do not.

I will never neglect a game for any reason other than by accident. It'd be stupid alignment-regardless. It's gotten me lynched as scum. It's gotten me replaced as town. It's gotten me close to replaced many times more than that.

[Ranger]

why's it suicide to double bus in this setup? one of you gets vigged, other is in the clear.

Because in order to win, you have to navigate:
-The town-controlled lynch D1.
-The town-controlled laser D2.
-The town-controlled lynch D2.
-The town-controlled laser D3.
-The town controlled lynch D3.

At minimum

.
With bad luck regarding protections, you could theoretically get into a position where town gets

an extra laser and lynch

.
That's FIVE town-controlled chances to kill you at minimum, potentially seven! Seven chances, with one confirmed town player.

That's a gauntlet.

Someone like YOU, Radiant, would try it. Discard the weak scumbuddy, play solo, get towncred, let town eat themselves apart, and cruise to the win.

Someone like BlueBloodedToffee would not.

This is also something I apply to Errantparabola: Errant is a reasonably conservative scum player. Errant would know the odds would be against them if Not_Mafia died so early, which is another reason why I think it's you, not Errant.

[Ranger]

1. I think NM interactions aren't going to give us much in the way of determining someone's alignment this game. Look at dewy and beeboy.

To the contrary! I could tell beeboy was town even without the town flip, though from the interactions I understood why beeboy was dead. I also thought the

only

bad thing about Dewy was the Not_Mafia defense. (That may be a slight exaggeration, but it's fairly close.)

So the interactions are not useless. Maybe they are to

you

, but they're not to me.

Literally everything is telling me it's RC.

2. And RC doesn't "bus strategically." RC busses 100% if he believes the tradeoff to be worth it. RC busses with the expectation that his scumpartner will die, not with the expectation that he will gain a strategic advantage via distancing.

I didn't say he distanced strategically. I said he

bussed

strategically. I fully am aware when he busses, he expects his partner to die. I just so happen to also know RC, when scum, is not immune to changing his mind based off the situation, and if given the opportunity to attack town and delay the death of the scumbuddy, he will attack town and delay the death of the scumbuddy.

That's what I meant. He knew Not_Mafia was going to die. That doesn't mean Not_Mafia was going to be lasered D1, or necessarily even lynched D1. There was severe interest in lasering BBT if I recall correctly, and people were throwing out all kinds of lynch candidates which RC could and did pursue as alternatives to Not_Mafia.

3. I remember NM being seriously disconnected with the game.

This is what he

claimed

.
You have to be seriously naive if you believe Not_Mafia's play here was because of a disconnect. Not_Mafia was

scum

. He KNEW he was going to die. His mission was to give the town as little information as possible, then die. By that scenario, lynching RC would have been ideal: cut off the town info, even if it meant he'd be lasered D2. Yet it did not materialize.

I have no doubt that you, as potential scum, would get acquainted with the game state and THEN read "from the top" and give a progression of your reads, so that we think that you are reading organically from the top but you've actually already understood the nature of the game state as it is in the present.

I have seven completed scum games.

Not

once

have I displayed this trait.
To the contrary, I have fallen behind as scum

twice

, and both times ended up in a disadvantageous position leading directly to my lynch as a consequence.

3. Your trajectory of your RC read.

My trajectory on RC has been,
"Oh, looks like scum."
"Yeah, that's...pretty strongly scum."
"Definitely scum."
"ARG I NEEDED TO BE IN THE GAME SOONER BECAUSE MOTHER OF GOD RC WAS OBVIOUSLY SCUM AND HE NEEDS TO DIE."

[Ranger]

RC gave a list of scum and asked to be BOPed.

So did Viva La Gloria in white flag.
Spoiler alert! Viva La Gloria, RC's alt, was scum.

[Ranger]

In RC's credit,
UNVOTE: RadiantCowbells

Errant

is

peddling both sides right now pretty hard.
Insisting I'm scum, but at the same time also insisting RC's scum.

So I am listening. Wouldn't be the first time I was wrong in lylo.
I still am pretty sure it's him, though.

[Ranger]

talk to me about how you're wrong about your prediction for RC's actions after the deathtunnel failed.

For that, I would need time to read, which I have not had, given the constant stream of new posts here.

that's my point.

And? You don't see the evolution of certainty?

not once have i come close to EVEN COMING CLOSE to wanting RC dead.

1752 implies otherwise. It is by far not the only spot, but it's one of the strongest, just on this page alone.

In your credit: RC actually

hasn't

voted you if I'm remembering recent events correctly...indicating he's waiting to vote, waiting for some sort of cue that says, "yep, I can vote here safely".
Which is. Again. Why I'm pretty sure it's him.

[Ranger]

And even if your accusations were correct, i fail to understand why "peddling both sides" is a bad thing. Are you suggesting that the best thing to do in lylo is to pick a side and refuse to consider the other side?

Not exactly, but kind-of, yeah. You either form a strong opinion and follow through, or you don't form a strong opinion and then actively try to fix having a lack of opinion until you do.

Your approach is instead attacking both sides equally. You

claim

you're attacking me harder, but I don't see it that way; I see equal amounts of mud slung at both me and RC from you. And that's basically the one and only thing giving me doubt about RC. The equal amounts, lack of hard commitment, is more typical of your scum game.

[Ranger]

1. What's the motive of scum attacking both sides equally? To seem impartial and to set up progressions for both votes.
2. If I wanted to convince you of being impartial, then why would I be actively attempting to convince you otherwise?

This more or less answers itself. I've made the statement that scum have strong motivation to be attacking both sides equally. Attempting to convince players you're

not

attacking both sides equally is an attempt to defend against the statement.

3. If I wanted to set up progressions for both votes, then why would I be voting you right now?

Why not? It does no harm to have your vote on. You can switch votes without needing to unvote. In the mean time, it also serves to...be 'proof' that you are not attacking both sides. (This is something you and RC have both done: "Ranger, I'm voting Errant, I'm not setting both of you up"; "Ranger, I'm voting you, how is that setting you both up?")

4. There is no consistency between my actions and your accusations and that makes me pretty confident that you're scum.

I have no response to this because this is a "no u" argument on your part.

5. Secondly, what you're trying to do is openly suggest that I am at fault for the fact that I believe that both people are acting some degree of scummy.

Yes, I am. This is as town as my town game gets. Last time you and I were in a situation like this, I even

caught you for not realizing I was town

. In contrast, RC has admitted his play this game is indistinguishable from his actions if he were scum. So I have every right to suggest you are at fault here. Apricity gets excused, for not having experience with me, same as in that game how AlwaysInnocent got excused. You lacked the excuse then, you still lack it now. This is where the doubt comes from.

In short? It's a player-based burden of proficiency: when interacting with me, you should know better. Yet here you are.

Say you're town in a 4 way LYLO like this one, and the other two unconfirmed you both perceive as scummy, one more than the other. If the person that you perceive as less scummy acts in a way that suggests that they might be scum, do you just STOW AWAY that belief without telling anyone else because you don't want to "play both sides?"

In that situation, what I would be doing is not voting either and openly reading.

AKA...you know. Exactly what I'm doing

at this very moment

. Because a situation which

was

"this player is definitely scum, the other one has to be town by default" has shifted into "I thought this player was scum, but there's this something I

really need addressed

to be sure", which...hasn't materialized yet. Thus the doubt.

[Ranger]

Got a

very

strong gut vibe that arguing with Errant is townVtown.

VOTE: RadiantCowbells.

[Ranger]

You've really fallen short of the promise you showed in Blitz 21 in every game since then

Well, there I was 100% on the mafia.
I can't do that every game. I average 50-66%. (White Flag for instance is a good example: 2/3, including you, for 66%.)
This game already has a flipped mafiate, though, and had that before I came in.

As a result, my accuracy this game was either going to be 100%, or 0%.

I cannot be right 100% of the time. As a result, there will always be misreads. There will always be mis-steps. You have to look at the overall picture to see how I'm doing. Overall, I maintain the above percentages, but for every game I have 75-100% accuracy, that means I have another game where I have lower-than-50%.

I'm not going to leave the vote there blindly and log out for the night. I believe deadline's before tomorrow night, so if I did, I'd be committing to a vote either winning or losing the entire game. I'm staying here. I'm going to read. I recognize there's one strong sign for Errant being scum, and cannot afford to ignore it. However, currently, I still think it's you.

[Ranger]

like there's no arguments that I can make when I know full well that my scum game is virtually indistinguishable from my town game, and the NM not hammering thing is pretty relevant. but I'm town so you gotta get your shit together.

Then give me something to focus on.

Frankly, the game would be easier if Errant were scum. Errant's antagonizing me. You're going after Errant, so if you were town, then all I'd have to do is OMGUS. With regards to Errant, OMGUS is potentially an actually-valid tell regarding Errant's patterns with me. But I don't feel it. I don't see it as actually being true.

Why am I so hard a townread?
You were shown wrong on Bulbazoor, what off of ME makes me look town to you?

What makes Errant scum?
This is the kind of thing I need from you.


And while we're discussing things I need, from Errant it's basically the opposite.
Every piece of meta you've used has said, "RC's null, not scum". What makes him town? Every piece of defense you've used boils down to, "RC's just not scum" without actually giving me

why

. (Yes, I'm aware of the irony given my reputation, but that's me and this is YOU.)

What on

earth

do you see in me that is not my town self?
I know, for RC I'm asking why I'm so strongly town, and I actually

do

think myself strongly town, but I still need to SEE from him why all the same, and when it comes to you, I desperately need to see this, more even than I do from him, because it is some serious dissonance from what I've seen from you: you've seen me as town many times. You know this is my town play. You've seen my performance as scum. Even if that was not a standard scum game of mine, it was still nothing like my play this game. So

where

does that read come from?

[Ranger]

And...reading back from the beginning.

Soren's RVS still feels town. 12 in particular.

Radiant's posting still feels cheeky.

[Ranger]

I can't play properly under pressure.

Neither can I. Pressure has always caused my accuracy to plummet. I adapted listing to avoid pressure in the first place. Playing as lazily as possible to avoid all that stress, which caused both my life and my reads to suffer.

But here we are anyway.

[Ranger]

I don't understand how you can interpret this as anywhere close to cheeky.

Early posting. Posting now? Definitely not cheeky. Talking early-game.

[Ranger]

Rrrg.

UNVOTE: RadiantCowbells.

DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I HATE YOU RIGHT NOW, RC?

You're like, almost definitely scum right now and your case for not being scum is basically "I know I look like scum, but I'm not, honest" which is like the ultimate AtE, and yet

I'm still unvoting you

.

[Ranger]

Oh.

188.

VOTE: Errantparabola.

[Ranger]

I just realized.

Here's the thing.
You're a capable player.
I have no doubt that you, as potential scum, would get acquainted with the game state and THEN read "from the top" and give a progression of your reads, so that we think that you are reading organically from the top but you've actually already understood the nature of the game state as it is in the present.

This is what Errant's catch-up at the beginning looks like.

[Ranger]

Give me about an hour to get home and i'll start my catchup.

59 minutes later, Errant

posted

a post. Not started, posted.

[Ranger]

Are you insinuating that I lied about real life circumstances to gain an advantage ingame?

No, I'm insinuating that you

didn't

, and that the

exact

time of one hour indicates you had already done work on the game...which is the scum profile you were trying to project onto me.

[Ranger]

So EP--you'll likely be voting Ranger? And Ranger, are you still set on voting RC?

Actually...it might be the opposite.

[Ranger]

Also, I realize this is bad timing, but for some UNGODLY reason, my internet picked

now

of

all

freakin days to go on the fritz. I'm dealing with the lag from hell. Half the time I'm not even sure my post will go through, and the method I use is a painstaking workaround.

So most likely, I will unfortunately not be able to contribute much. Barely post, barely read, it's inconvenient I know, but there's literally nothing I can do about it.

[Ranger]

Will you be able to vote? We haven't got much time left.

I'm already voting Errant.
If it were a move to RC...the answer is "maybe". Maybe I could, maybe I couldn't, I honestly don't know. The question isn't whether I could vote him, it's whether I would want to.
And, curse him forever, right now as much as I've painted him as scum, I don't actually think he's scum so I don't want to.

[Ranger]

this is, by the way, because ranger's "case" on RC is terrible.

To the contrary. My case on RC is strong.
And I hate myself for not following through on it.
But...I'm not following through on it because even though that's what huge key pieces of evidence tell me, my own instincts backed up by certain other posts (namely, Soren's post defending Not_Mafia and your entrance post matching the scum mold you projected onto me combined with the already-mentioned read-peddle and egregious misread of me against all reasonable expectations to the contrary) tell me it's you.

[Ranger]

To sum it up:
-RC looks like scum for lots of reasons. Similarity to his scumgame, particularly as a then-secret alt which had no reason to replicate town-play of RC because he was an alt. Strategic pushes which were opportunistic and convenient. Not_Mafia's lack of a hammer on him when given the opportunity. Not_Mafia's general commenting on him (and no other player) without doing anything. Furthermore, some parts of my argument with Errant felt townVtown, which by default, would make Radiant scum.
-However, in spite of all of this, in a move that makes absolutely no sense to me yet which I'm doing anyway for god only knows why, I'm not voting him. This is in part because...
-My instincts are telling me to pursue Errantparabola.
-This instinct is fueled by a few factors. For a start, while RC has self-admitted he is playing to his scum meta (yet insists he is town anyway), Errantparabola is

also

displaying strong qualities of Errant's scumgame. There's a lack of commitment in several areas of Errant's iso, and analysis that says a lot but does almost nothing. (I mainly am referencing Errant's catch-up posts near the beginning, here.)
-This is further reinforced by the misread on me: Errantparabola has seen my scum game, and it is nothing like here. Errantparabola has many games with me as town, and should know this is

exactly

like those games. When I pointed this out, Errantparabola brushed it off, effectively ignoring key evidence. Reinforcing this, the last time Errantparabola tried to scumread me in a manner similar to this, Errant was scum, and this part is admittedly from memory, but I recall Errant--though loosening the stance--never firmly reversing it. The last time Errant scumread me as town, Errant instead backed down. It's a small sample size, yes, but it's enough circumstantial evidence to suggest Errant is scum again.
-Then you throw in Soren's Not_Mafia defense.
-And with Errant's early posting resembling the very mold Errant tried to project as being MY scumplay ("read the game, get situated, and THEN post after already being familiar with the game state"), I'm willing to trust that instinct.

[Ranger]

if ranger were here she would have thoroughly trounced me by now i think.

This is (probably) true.

Access issues during the last day of lylo

suck

.

We won anyway, so I'm happy for that, but I did little to help contribute other than place my vote on Errant first.

Seriously this game is an outlier in how much effort literally everyone was putting forth to look town (post-Ranger replacement), AND be successful at it.

^This.

<3 Errant. Don't quit on us.