My Little Pony: Friendship is Redemption (Over)

[Feysal]

...

Darn it.

This is not getting any better by putting it off. Like everyone and their grandmother, I was confused by what looked like a scum role but lacked any mention of partners. Of course I figured out what was what, but I cannot shake the feeling of disappointment, and of being cheated. I take the risk of landing in a scum role each time I sign up and play whatever role I get, but I'm not too happy at being thrust into a lose-lose scenario like this. I was set to take charge of retaking Ponyville from discord, and instead I find myself having to defend it from the evils of... happiness... and friendship... Meh. Way to kill the mood, mod. Excuse me if I will be happier if the informed minority winds up winning this.

On that note, what is up with all these smart-alec posts that say "I thought I was scum, therefore I am town"? It used to be a genuine tell you know, and in the past games I've played with town and scum factions reversed, every single player who committed it turned out to be town. By turning it into a joke you've ruined it. As the first poster, I name Tierce as the worst offender.

VOTE: Tierce

You can just as easily be surprised about flavour from the mafias POV is his attempted point.

Nope. I have been down this road too often not to shoot down bad logic like this.

Tell me, what are the differences between a town and scum role PM? The alignment color obviously, but beyond that, scum roles contain a fair bit more information. Names of partners, link to QuickTopic, possible false claim, shared abilities and mechanics... It is considerably harder to look at a scum role PM and overlook all the things that are there than it is to look at a town role PM and notice things that are not there. True confusion on your alignment is definitely a town tell.

[Feysal]

We have eight pages, and I'm only posting for the second time. This begins well...

Feysal disappoints. Voting

Vi

me is a scumtell.

Oh is it now?

Feysal. Honestly. It's one thing to have players who don't

know

they are town a la Space Monkey Mafia. It's another quite different to have a non-canon-like town faction in which you read your role PM and the first post and get that cleared up and out of the way. I'm not giving any town points to people who mentioned it, but giving them scumpoints for joking about it is absurd. If your vote is anything but RVS, you're indeed disappointing me. If it is RVS, making that long a post just to discuss this (which you could do regardless of alignment) and ignoring the rest of the first four pages? Welcome to the scumpile.

I will respond to meta with some meta of my own - A Storm of Swords. The situation in that game was identical to this one, with the town and scum factions having been reversed from a preceding game, and town roles using the color red, which many players associated with scum, just like we have town roles in grey here. Some players commented on having been confused about their alignment, myself included, and they were all town. I know I used this tell again in a later game, and again everyone who committed it was town, including the players who only mentioned it after it had been called a town tell. I cannot seem to find where I said it, and I suspect it was in the lost part of A Feast for Crows. In any case, even though it seems like such an easy tell to fake, I have never seen scum try it. I don't claim to understand why, but this tell has been perfectly accurate in my experience.

Naturally I was thinking about this when I received my role this game. The tell of course can be easily faked if you know about it, which I obviously do, so there was no point in me even mentioning it. But that did not mean I could not use it to obtain some initial town reads, and for that to work I had to keep it quiet. And then the first post I see is you turning the tell into a joke, drenching any references to it after yours in wifom. What were you even thinking? Was there any point to that post?

How can you tell the difference between "true" confusion and scum faking? What are your thoughts on the other two players (Godot / Poopykins) that have said similar things?

With great difficulty - or with surprising ease. It depends on the case. I have seen town get confused by their role color to such an absurd degree that it made them confirmed town in my eyes. Anyway, having Tierce jump the gun means we can't conclude anything close to reliable from those comments.

Godot is town for unrelated reasons, Poopykins I have no idea yet.

[Feysal]

Dearest RainbowMOD, could we please get a PROD on Feysal?

No prod is necessary. As it happens, I am reading the game today. My weekend has been rather too busy.

Feysal--eight pages, and that is still all that you have to say? I brought up Discord being town because I was being truthful to my reaction when seeing my role PM, and because it had a link to the previous game in which I was Discord.

For the time being I have the luxury of being able to choose what and who to talk about. I threw you a ball to see what you would do with it, and it appears you decided to throw it in my face. Whether that has any significance I cannot say yet, but it is not making me more receptive to you being town.

You are correct in saying that I have not called you suspicious, however I have seen warning signs. For one, I disagree with your statement that making jokes about the tell should not be viewed with suspicion, on the contrary I believe that is what the informed minority would be more likely to do - making fun of the tell while abusing it. Secondly, I do not understand why you would think that merely voting you would be a scumtell, and I definitely don't understand what makes you think you should be considered obvtown. Then there is the quote above, which reads as possible overjustification.

I could care less if Glork abused the tell as scum. He is a veteran player and a respected one at that, and I would not pay any heed to the tell being invoked by one such as him. It is not a one-size-fits-all tell, no tell is. If I had seen someone like Godot or Salamence bring it up, I would have felt inclined to believe it though.

Truly, you have a dizzying intellect.

Just because you don't agree with the tell being valid does not mean you get to be rude about it.

Now please, at the risk of being called a hypocrite, explain to me why you have to write such long-winded responses?

I just do. Always have, always will. Deal with it.

If this is the sort of posting I can look forward to seeing from you, I don't think I'll enjoy playing with you very much. Unfortunately I think you're town, so there is little I can do about it.

Do tell the 'unrelated reasons' that Godot is town, please.

My reason is pretty much Godot failing to realize Katsuki and Pinkie Pie are the same player in post #174. His claim also rings true, in particular I don't see that vanilla town role claim coming from anti-town.

I would like to see Godot explain what he means with the bait in post #178, because I can't understand it no matter how many times I read it. For the record, I believe Pinkie Pie is town too, that was my immediate reaction to post #94.

Now I suppose I need to ISO Charlie and see what the case on him is all about.

[Feysal]

Who's the least active out there?

That would be me. If anyone were even less active, they would deserve every bit of suspicion coming their way.

Now, where was I? Oh yes.

I'm fine if that's your style. I just want you to post more often. It's hard for me to scumhunt if somebody only makes one post every 3 days or so, and it's a carefully worded one at that. If you're town, surely you'll understand.

Certainly I understand, and being town has nothing to do with it. While I can't promise any significant increase in activity, I will say that I am trying.

It is interesting that you noted my posts being carefully worded, since there is more truth to that than you can possibly know. I had a look at the old My Little Pony Mafia for meta on Charlie, and while reading I came across something else, a post of mine where I hinted at the reason, but never expanded on. There, it is out now. Now it remains to be seen if anyone figures out what I'm rambling about here.

It is not important anyway, and that Charlie read is far more relevant. So yes, I read through his posts, and looked for meta to guide me. I reached a conclusion. To put it bluntly -

UNVOTE: Tierce
VOTE: Charlie

His play here has been truly bizarre. It is almost as if he is trolling us. That is a major difference to him as town in Twilight Sparkle's pony game, though admittedly he was obvtown due to players he replaced as much as due to his own performance. His style here resembles his play in his latest scum game I found, which earns him my vote. In addition, I'm curious about what did he find townish about me in my first post, and why am I null in his latest reads?

It occurs to me that I never explained why I thought Godot mistaking Katsuki and Pinkie Pie as separate slots made him town, so I shall do so now. It is simply about ignorance and confusion being more commonly town traits. I don't expect scum, especially a new player, to fake that reaction so soon after Pinkie Pie alt slipped.

On the other hand, Godot could have been that clueless as scum, and there is something warped about his thought process. If he were still here, the first question I would ask him is how could he possibly think we would talk about a mere altslip until deadline? And the second would be, where did he learn the term altslip? Chamber did explain the nature of the mistake, but no one used that word to describe it. By using it first, Godot indicates familiarity with the concept. And if he was familiar with it, why did he not notice the obvious, that Katsuki and Pinkie Pie were the same player? Chamber had said that Pinkie Pie was probably Katsuki only hours earlier for crying out loud.

On top of all that, he suddenly replaces out with no warning, no explanation of any kind. That does not encourage me to trust him to say the least.

I'm glad that Chrono Trigger Mafia is finally over too, since I can now say that I mistook Vi for town that game and killed him. Killed his partner too the next night... if only I was that accurate when I am aiming for scum. Anyway, Vi seems to me like the sort of player who becomes suspicious simply by surviving too long. If he is still up and kicking after three nights, there will be cause for concern.

[Feysal]

Attention Feysal: I actually think you're Town in this game. Please learn how not to make posts that scream "scum".

Attention Feysal: I used to think you're Town in this game for a single post. I realize that is dated. Please continue to make posts that scream "scum" and let a wagon form on you for good reasons.

So, I have two players saying my posts scream scum, and yet neither is voting me, instead they believe or believed once I was town. Neither of them even mentions anything specific. If you are trying to confuse me, you're doing it right.

Whatever. I have something more important and interesting to look into, the war of walls between DJ and Rarity.

I started by reading both in isolation, and few things jumped at me I would not have noticed earlier. I could not find the town tell I thought I'd seen from DJ, but I'm inclined to believe her town anyway. Likewise, I did not see anything particularly damning from Rarity, and was left with the feeling she could be town, though the read was less strong.

Then I looked over Rarity's case, and that proved more interesting, and potentially revealing. I will start with the quotes.

If Godot wasn't too scummy, what's scummier about Arugula?

Specifically, what's scummy enough to switch off my wagon, which you've been more than content with riding the whole time?

Implying that something has to be scummier than her to switch wagons.

No. This is reaching at best, and outright dodging at worst. I don't see any such implication being important here. I see a direct question you have never answered, despite responding to this post twice.

Completely IGNORES that I explained my reasoning in the very post she quoted.

You explained nothing. All you said was that Arugula replaced into a scummy slot, in apparent contradiction to yourself, since you went on to say that the slot was not too scummy before Arugula replaced in, and up to that point you had consistently called Godot town. Now, you could have been talking about how everyone else saw the slot as scummy rather than you, but that would be too generous. The bottom line is that you have never given any explanation whatsoever for your flip on Godot, despite your claims to the contrary.

She also is confused as to how my reads can change so quickly when in the EXACT SAME POST SHE CLAIMS THAT HER READS CHANGED ON ME.

This I call blatant dodging. Whether or not DJ's read on you changed is irrelevant here, she wants to know why your read on Godot/Arugula changed, and you are refusing to explain. And you dare call DJ shameless.

Well isn't this an utterly useless response.

What a coincidence! This response also happens to be even more useless! Way to superficially make your post-size larger in an attempt to appear like you are trying to provide content!

This is terrible. Calling attention to chamber posting fluff may not be the most useful thing to be doing, but claiming DJ would need to pad her posts like this to maintain the appearance of providing content is reaching, when she in fact is providing plenty.

I'm not sure if trying to butter me up by your timely unvote, or if you're just finally sure that there's no way you can make people think I'm scum.

HAY PPLS ARE UNVOTING ME NOW THAT MUST MEAN NO ONE THINKS IM SCUM LOLOLOLOL. BECAUSE THE ONLY THING THAT INDICATES A READ IS A VOTE. AHAAHAHAHHAHA.

Do I need to remind you that DJ is suspicious of Vi, and as such did not believe Vi's vote on her was honest? You're making no sense here.

You mean you had a town read on me before but somehow one post has made that disappear?

Yes. That's exactly it.

^Completely and hilariously missing the point.

You asked a direct question, and she answered it. Exactly what is this point she missed?

This is exactly what I'd expect scum to say after pointing out a "contradiction" in someone else's post. It is like secondarily reinforcing the "hey everyone, look at this scummy thing X did!" message you're already sending. You just went up even higher on the ol' scumdar.

"OH YOU WOULD POINT OUT MY SCUMMY CONTRADICTIONS AND SCUMHUNT ME WOULDN'T YOU! THAT'S JUST WHAT SCUM WOULD DO!"

I don't see what the contradiction is supposed to be here. What I do see is you nitpicking and trying to distract people from noticing you never actually answered the question DJ asked you.

Hey Brandi? Guess who looks for "more than enough reason to vote someone?" Scum does.

Hey DJ, guess who looks for more than enough reason to vote someone? Town does.

Wrong again. Town looks for scum, while scum looks for reasons to vote town they can get away with. You of course have given no reasons, but your repeated claims of having given enough reasons does look like scum trying to excuse their bad vote.

So you're going to take every sentence I write and try to find something wrong with it. Now- THAT- is scummy.

Are you sure you're not talking about yourself here? This seems like exactly what you're doing with DJ.

Especially when hopping onto a wagon they haven't paid much attention to before, or were scared to touch earlier for fear of being called scummy for an easy hop. Such as a wagon on a newbie. They wait until something happens that feels like a smoking gun, and then over-justify their position so it doesn't look like they're voting without reason.

Completely false and heavily filled with misrep. Just your style, I guess.

DJ was making a generic statement of what scum do, not claiming that you had done all of that. Facts are that you kept calling Godot town, and only voted the slot after he replaced out. I would not say you have overjustified your vote on Arugula, but other than that I can see why DJ would think the statement was appropriate here.

Unvote; Vote: Brandi

I am very,

very

happy with this vote.

That's fine, I don't mind being on the scumlist of scum. It's actually quite flattering that you flail so much because of me. ^^

So you accuse DJ of flailing?

You?

Flailing is already the most overused and unreliable tell in the book, but coming from you it is comedy gold.

And in the wake of that moment of faked self-righteousness, here comes the false bravado that you think will make you look town.

"OH NOES I CAN'T FIND ANYTHING SCUMMY ABOUT THIS POST! GUYS! ITS JUST FAKED TOWNINESS THAT LOOKS REALLY TOWN BUT ITS NOT!!!!"

Listen to yourself.

And here's you trying to make it look like I'm purposefully spreading misinformation.

And here is you purposefully spreading misinformation by claiming that I was saying that you were purposefully spreading misinformation. I wasn't, I was merely correcting you. But I guess being scum and all would make it hard to see it that way. It's cute that you can manage to take everything as an attack~

Trying to be witty while reaching for reasons to suspect DJ again? This is getting old.

And then here are your "reads".

More filler in an attempt to YET AGAIN try to expand your word-count. It sure looks like you are trying here!!! (hint: sarcasm)

That is not filler. DJ is openly dismissing your reads as bad.

Why are you adding fluff tags? Charlie and Vi are fluffing without remorse, and arguably a couple other players are doing so as well. Why don't

you

feel comfortable doing it without tongue-in-cheekly informing everyone else that you're doing what you're doing?

Because you know you're guilty. And you're trying too hard to fit in.

*snip*

I'm not even going to quote your response. You have been posting plenty of fluff, yes. What kind of defense is that? And then you claim that DJ has nothing on you except lies, contradictions and bullshit. Is that the best you can do?

That was fun. Rarity, when can we expect your case on DJ? Clearly this can't have been it. Where are these lies and contradictions you speak of? Point them out.

***

Good grief. That was one of the worst posts I have read in some time. Rarity keeps accusing DJ for whatever excuses she can think of, even ones that apply far better to her own play. It is not even a case of a pot calling the kettle black, when the Black Cauldron would compare favorably to Rarity. I particularly like what she said about DJ acting under pressure. Is waiting for pressure to wear off on you before becoming aggressive really indicative of scum? I have never noticed such a thing or heard anyone mention it, rather I feel the opposite is true, and scum become more aggressive under pressure. The pressure is clearly on Rarity here.

Time for some quote walls to back up my points!

The reader may have noticed that I added links to the original posts that were absent from the quotes in the original case. I did this to provide context, but also to underline the fact that the quotes were mostly from a single post by DJ. Rarity has been calling DJ scum since her first content post, and yet none of her original reasons can be found in her case. In fact, Rarity is almost exclusively attacking DJ's case on her, and has the nerve to accuse DJ of OMGUS.

Oh, and did I say I found nothing damning while reading Rarity's ISO? In fact I found this.

Sudo, I'm not so certain on. I will admit he has been able to get one over on me before.

*snip*

My point is, he's a crafty one. But it's too early to tell whether or not he's scum. He hasn't provided enough content for me to judge.

Sudo is not crafty as scum or as town
(please don't be offended <3)

I seem to recall Rarity saying Sudo would not be a very good wagon for lack of connections. Earlier she said Sudo was crafty. And now that suspicion is rising on Sudo, she says the exact opposite? I believe I see a connection now, between Rarity and Lady Edwina. No wonder Rarity was under pressure to make a case.

UNVOTE: Charlie
VOTE: Rarity

[Feysal]

Rarity.

Once more, without the attitude please.

There were only two passages in your reply worth responding to, the rest was just various ways of calling me stupid or scum. I am neither, and I believe I see where the error lies on your part.

This I call blatant dodging. Whether or not DJ's read on you changed is irrelevant here, she wants to know why your read on Godot/Arugula changed, and you are refusing to explain. And you dare call DJ shameless.

I'm not explaining anything to scum. If you can't see why this is INCREDIBLY pro-town to let scum SQUIRM around and WONDER why you are voting for their SCUMBUDDY when it should be OBVIOUS to everyone else. (And it is- plenty of people understand why Arugula is blatantly scummy-)

I disagree. I don't see anyone squirming here, I only see you making it look like you don't have any valid reasons and are trying to make up for it with stubborn tenacity and ridiculing your opponents. I don't care about other people finding Arugula suspicious either, I want to know why you find him suspicious, in your own words. One of the easiest ways to win as scum is to use cases made by town on town, and as far as I can tell you are the only player in game who finds Arugula more suspicious than Godot. I would like to know why.

In any game of mafia, town has three priorities: finding scum, convincing the rest of the town they have found scum, and convincing the rest of the town not to lynch them. If you are good enough at the first two, you should not concern yourself with the third. By keeping your reasons to yourself you are failing at convincing anyone, and inviting suspicion on yourself.

Like, ok, I'll give in. You want me to spell it out for you?

>She complains that my reads on Arugula's slot changed and is confused as to how
>Then goes to directly claim that her reads on me changed
>Both of our reads changed in a RELATIVELY SHORT TIME yet somehow MINE is worth questioning-
>This makes her a hypocrite
>It also makes her wrong
>It also makes her scum

That is your interpretation. I'm convinced it is incorrect. You are so blinded by your tunnel vision that you are seeing things.

No one ever said that you could not change your reads, not DJ, not I. We want to know how your read changed, as in what exactly did Arugula do or say to make you reverse your town read on Godot, not as in "how could you change your read, you can't do that". All you have ever said is that nothing Arugula has posted has made him more likely to be town, and that you did not find the slot suspicious until he replaced in. That is very vague and very weak, and I say DJ was right to call you out on that. She shared her reason. How are we to judge if you have valid reasons if you refuse to share them? We want specifics.

There you have it. Poof, no contradiction, no hypocrisy, no case.

[Feysal]

I only have time for a short post right now and not for researching or writing cases, but I feel I should do this now if I want to get anything more done today.

UNVOTE: Rarity

I have spent some time thinking about this. On one hand I remain worried that this is a repeat of the incident I had with LynchMePls in A Storm of Swords, where he pretty much screamed for my death until he had his way. His excuse was a strange misinterpretation of one of my posts, which he stubbornly clung to, refusing to listen to any counterarguments. He turned out to be scum. The similarities to the DJ-Rarity battle are evident, with the exception that this time I have the fortune of being an observer rather than the mislynch of the day. Simply put, Rarity could have been trying to have DJ lynched through sheer determination to avoid scrutiny of her arguments. But that is paranoia talking. If scum were to try such a thing, I imagine they would pick an easier target.

Thing is, the more I listen to Rarity now, the more honest she feels. I did not know of her link to the Screaming Death Clan, and that knowledge makes her play more understandable. I also think I see a subtle towntell from her now that escaped my notice earlier.

I am considering voting Arugula or Sudo_Nym as I write this, but I need to look at them both properly before I decide, and that has to wait until morning.

[Feysal]

I think I've taken long enough making up my mind.

VOTE: Arugula (L-2)

This is mostly for things Godot said and did, though Arugula's reaction to the wagon on himself does not inspire confidence either. There is also Rarity's case, but I'm not sure how to feel about it since I'm not very familiar with those tells.

From what I see from Chamber, he's likely town. His posts would seem scummy from how he reacted similar to me and how he even said his sounded more forced than mine, but checking his join date, I wouldn't put it past him to do that. He would relieve any pressure we put on him if we started his wagon and it would be empty just as soon.

I'm just saying I'd rather not take the chance of pursuing you with that in mind, especially not now with a wagon and scum probably getting ready to hammer.

For starters, Godot's stance on Chamber is very strange. It sounds like he believes that Chamber is suspicious, but that he is too experienced to have made such suspicious posts by accident. How such WIFOM logic translates to a town read is beyond me. In addition, I don't think I've ever seen excuses like Godot's not to push someone, and I have severe trouble imagining town thinking that way.

My point still stands that there is plenty wrong with Pinkie's sheep vote because of the lack of reads from everything else posted and also that no one has breathed a word about it until now. Chamber, it's funny that you know exactly why that happened when, for the same reasons you accuse me, Pinkie very well could have used the Katsuki post as bait. I'm not saying you're wrong, but that the town needs to rethink its thought process if WIFOM draws a bigger wagon than clear evidence of attempts to lay low. It's driving us into prolonged tunnel vision and the scum will use it to blindside us if it continues at this rate.

I feel like my eyes have been opened.

I just found one of my favorite newbscum tells. Which is, talking about the scum team and using awkward (but what they think are totally tech) phrases like "can't let the scum catch us sleeping" or as is the case in this post "scum will use it to blindside us."

I've felt very meh about this game until just now. I'm so happy!

I have two more for you.

But if it's helping to break the ice a little and get the ball going, then we have something to start talking about. That's what we need to do right now is talk.

The faster this game goes, the less likely we are to look at everything, and everything matters here.

There is rather too much helpful advice and too little relevant content in Godot's posts.

I would like to see Godot explain what he means with the bait in post #178, because I can't understand it no matter how many times I read it. For the record, I believe Pinkie Pie is town too, that was my immediate reaction to post #94.

What I meant with the bait comment was that we could talk about what that altslip meant and the WIFOM behind it until the Mod declared "No Lynch" since I could have just as easily called Chamber out on his explanation, but we didn't get into that. It was moot. Though now, we've been into some good discussion about reads and have started pointing out different things about everyone and what connections and comments we should keep in the back of our minds for later day phases. That comment is now outdated as its relevance has expired and stronger information and reads have come to light since then.

I can't understand for the life of me how Godot could think we would talk about an altslip until deadline. And again Godot speaks of information, reads and connections, without actually mentioning any.

As for my answer to your question, it slipped my mind yet again when I looked at my own role PM. Y'know, 'cause I'm used to seeing them without flavor and with straight up evil/good colors? Same confusion, same reaction, two PMs. This is my first game on my own, no one advising me on anything. I'm not perfect. I am prone to mistakes. Especially among more experienced players. Can we move on from the petty fluff now?

I did not think Vi's language tell was that incriminating originally, but Godot's attempt to explain it away while appealing to his newbie status is horrible. The sample role PM was up for no more than 52 minutes before all role PMs were out. I can't know when Godot opened his PM, but the time frame during which the sample role was the only one available is awfully short, and I feel Godot should have an exceptionally short memory to be confused about it twice. I very much doubt this story.

My PM possesses something his is clearly lacking, I think I've made that clear now (And implied it at the time) But with 4 people saying they notice nothing wrong its likely my PM that is unique.

edit: ah you just hit on what I was implying! My PM gives my character motivation for why he wants the town to stay discord aligned.

Finally we have Chamber's comment on Godot's flavor claim. I think he may have been on to something with this. For me, the motivation to stay Discord aligned is somewhat vague, but it is there. As for the Cheerilee claim, it sounds like she would be motivated to restore Friendship. For those who are not familiar with the flavor, during her lesson about cutie marks she explained how hers symbolizes her desire to help her students learn and grow. In short, in a world where she had nothing to teach, Cheerilee would be miserable.

DJ-P0n-3, how come you can alt so well that it chases off another player requiring a replacement and then some (don't answer that just make a comeback comment for me please). I don't know who you are.

I think I do. I have a hunch anyway, and if it is correct,

he

must have been laughing at my expense for some time now. And definitely Tierce.

I did look at Lady Edwina too, but the results were far short of impressive. Any meta I was able to dig up was not only old but also inconclusive. I feel that much of the suspicion on the slot is due to posting style, and there was nothing I could not imagine coming from town in their posts. This read is anything but solid though.

[Feysal]

Today looks pretty easy for us. I agree on it being the only right move to lynch BBmolla, but before we do that, we should make sure that everything that needs to be said has been said. Arugula being scum gives us plenty of useful connections, mostly of the kind of people not being Friendship with him. Some were already mentioned, but Pinkie Pie is also a given, after the way Godot tried to push her. I am also pretty sure of Chamber, now The Rufflig, being Discord.

I don't think we have a choice, at this point. A cop claim with no counterclaim pretty much forces us here, I should think. We have the alternate play of not lynching, and seeing if Sala gets night-killed for the cop claim, but that could get complicated, I think.

Curious. Very curious. Considering that Salamence claimed the Friendship team consisted of Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash, I would have thought you would have something else to say.

Sudo is too drunk to be serious right now, but I resent the accusation of lying. It is well known that Sudo represents the element of honesty, and has never lied to no pony.

Does anyone else remember which Element of Harmony was represented by Applejack? Yup. Honesty. Now, what would possess you to soft claim Applejack, Milady Edwina?

[Feysal]

There would probably also be a kondi-like sheep vote too, but I don't think I could get the full inflection of bleating from my phone.

There is always YouTube.

[Feysal]

CharlietheUnicorn doesn't roll off the tongue as easily, though;

If anyone mentions candy mountain, I will personally kill Charlie.

Must... resist...

Damn. You were really,

really

asking for it though.

[Feysal]

Received my prod, but I'm not up to date, and I cannot fix that at the moment. I will be making time tomorrow to catch up and contribute.

[Feysal]

I am caught up. That was not so bad, only a couple new pages I had not read. Just in time too, what with there being a wagon one vote from lynch.

I know exactly where to begin.

DJ-P0n-3, how come you can alt so well that it chases off another player requiring a replacement and then some (don't answer that just make a comeback comment for me please). I don't know who you are.

I think I do. I have a hunch anyway, and if it is correct,

he

must have been laughing at my expense for some time now. And definitely Tierce.

I was somewhat disappointed when no one commented on this or asked me about it, either who I thought DJ was or why I thought it was worth mentioning. Of course the main topic of discussion yesterday was Salamence's claim, but I was going somewhere with this. And I am not too late yet.

I first became curious about DJ's identity after chamber replaced out to protect it. I had no access to whatever inside information chamber had, but I could use any publicly available information without having to replace out. Something Tierce said gave me a hunch, and so I went looking. The most obvious clue was chamber using male pronouns in his last post, though that obviously did not narrow it down much. Another thing that caught my attention was DJ using the word /confirm when signing up, as if he had already been in contact with the mod. Who could that be? The only pre-in who did not confirm was Thomith, but clearly DJ is not him. So who else could he be?

Soon afterwards I had a number of questions.

- Who signed up but then left after a discussion with the mod?
- Who signed up as a replacement but was overlooked when one was needed for chamber?
- Who closely resembles DJ in playstyle and use of language?
- Who in particular is known for posting walls and quote stripes?
- Who usually posts during the same hours DJ does?
- Who was on limited access during the time DJ was posting less?
- Who is heading, supposedly unstoppably, to Osaka?

The answer to all these questions is

MagnaofIllusion

. I believe he signed up as a replacement as a diversion with the knowledge and approval of the mod, and has been playing as the DJ alt from the start.

And here comes the reason why I think this is important.

MoI is the most rabid busser I have ever encountered.

I believe DJ is Friendship, but therein lies the problem that MoI would never have passed the chance to bus his partner Arugula - unless he was already voting for another partner. In other words, I think there is a definite possibility that both DJ

and

Rarity are Friendship.

I cannot claim absolute certainty of DJ being MoI - if I could, I would probably have to replace out myself - but I have played against MoI often enough that I believe I recognize him. I had to say this, and it is against him that my vote goes.

VOTE: DJ-P0n3

[Feysal]

Cool story, brony, but... isn't there something missing?

Reasons why DJ is scum, perchance?

Apart from the voting patterns mentioned today, I am worried about posts like #246 with the eyes have been opened bit. It never develops into anything from there. DJ claims to suspect Godot on several occasions, but never votes him, instead he refers to Godot as a mislynch wagon, questions why scum would replace out with the wagon on them disappearing, and says Godot should not be lynched that day, because he can easily be lynched later. That is a lot of excuses, and a strange way to treat someone you find suspicious whenever someone asks.

[Feysal]

Feysal, I'm not MagnaOfIllusion. And I am also not scum. It's like you aren't even reading the flipping game! Gah, this is frustrating.

I did say I was caught up, meaning I have read everything, though I was inactive so long that I may need to refresh my memory on some parts of the game. I still think your fencesitting on Godot, except when someone asked what your read on him was, is the most worrisome aspect of your play. I also wonder about your continued tunnel vision on Rarity, when your original reason for jumping on her was about her opportunistic vote on Godot - since when do anti-town players look for an opportunity to bus? I had been thinking about you possibly powerbussing Rarity since the end of day one, and seeing Rarity reconsider her read on you today after two Friendship players have been banished made me only more worried. I am not sorry for mentioning that either. I would rather be dead wrong than not speak up when it could have counted.

Now after further thought, I admit that the idea of you and Rarity both being Friendship makes little sense. With Godot and Mollakins as their other two partners, no sane anti-town player would jump on their one capable partner the way you jumped on Rarity. Also, while I found it disconcerting how Rarity was vote hopping at the end of day one, those votes look much better now in context.

UNVOTE: VOTE: Arugula
^
The scummier of the two current wagons.

Here is Rarity picking the wagon on confirmed Friendship Arugula instead of confirmed Discord Salamence. Sure, she did join it later when the other wagon was on herself, but still.

The only major thing that's changed for me during my re-read is that any scumread I had on Shmugen before has massively dissipated.

Mollakins is still scum.

UNVOTE: VOTE: Poopykins

After spending the remainder of day one jumping between Arugula, Mollakins and Shmugen, in her first post the second day Rarity again votes confirmed Friendship. Before Salamence claimed his cop result. While claiming her suspicion on Shmugen has vanished, the only one of her suspects whose alignment is not confirmed yet. If Shmugen is her partner, she would have tried to bus each of her allies after the other, and if Shmugen is town, she would have started the day by speaking against one of very few possible mislynches. How does that make sense if she was Friendship?

UNVOTE: DJ-P0N3 to give a chance to answer, and because I need to reread Trixie too.

On an off-topic note, the graphics processor of my laptop has a quirky way of emitting noises when it draws the screen. The noises from redrawing those animated GIFs have a rather nice rhythmic beat to them, which I find quite appropriate.

[Feysal]

Prodded again. I'm sorry about this, but my other game has proven to be a runaway train, and just keeping up with it has been monopolizing my time. There is hope for me yet though, since the coming end of the first day will free me to concentrate solely on this game. I will promise to catch up here before that, however.

[Feysal]

I hate starting my posts with apologies, but I am sorry about my extended absence from this game. I think it has done me some good though, and I can now look at some things with fresh eyes. Today I took a break from my other game to catch up here.

I think I've finally figured you out. You begin typing before you've thought things through, and while you type, you figure things out and type that too, which in turn leads to more thoughts, premises, and conclusions.

You may be on to something with this, but I think in this case it was more about me getting stuck on a wild goose chase and needing to reason my way out of it.

I also have my reasons. Look back through my ISO where I make footnotes (I labelled them muffin to self) and a lynch of Sudo_Nym the lurker has the added benefits of clearing Rarity and Feysal somewhat if he does flip Mafia.

Could you explain this? I don't remember having any interaction with Sudo that would have this implication.

With the Flavor Cop dead there is literally no reason to care about the identities of the scum.

I think there is one scenario where we may need to care, and that one concerns Rainbow Dash. Based on the flavor and Salamence's claim, I'm thinking that Dash could be a recruitable traitor. And my understanding of traitors is that typically either they, their team or both don't know each other's identities. If that is the case, we may need to rely on one-way connections to find the traitor, if one exists.

Okay, reads time. I rather like DJ's response, and my suspicion of her has largely faded. That does not mean I would agree on Rarity though. If Rarity were Friendship and DJ Discord, I don't see why Rarity would question her suspicion of DJ just as there is a real chance of her wagon being successful. I don't think she would need the town credit from DJ flipping town, and she could get away with pushing her too. That says their fight is probably town on town.

I agree with Konowa's wagon analysis, and that there being Friendship within Shmugen and Charlie is likely. I'd have to read them both more closely, but if I had to decide right now, I would prefer to oust Shmugen. It is not that I can't believe his reasons for being so inactive. I searched for his scum games to see if this behavior was typical of him, and it is not, either as scum or town. But even if he has been honest about his reasons for being inactive it does not mean he could not be Friendship. That he would use the little time he is here with setup speculation does not inspire confidence in him.

About Sudo, I noted earlier his comment about representing the element of honesty, which was a clear reference to Applejack. After Mollakins flipped, I thought about his false claim. We now know that the main six are highly likely to be Friendship roles, and they need false claims, which they apparently have. We did not know that on the first day, but Friendship did, and they could not have been sure of how much the town knew. Then, would Friendship be so careless as to post a comment that could be interpreted as a soft claim of a likely Friendship role? This made Sudo more likely to be town in my mind, and I also remember looking for his meta earlier. I have seen him become a day one mislynch at least once, and it seems he has a tendency to look suspicious. Sudo is not at all my favorite choice to oust.

[Feysal]

So, Sudo_Nym was town. I'd like to be able to say I told you so, but I really did not say it often enough, or loud enough. Anyway, this brings us down to nine people, which should be a managable number for anyone.

Without further ado, here is

my

list.

Feysal

Yes, I'm including myself at the top of my town reads, partly because I want to use this opportunity to defend myself, and partly because Vi did the same, and I want to underline that doing so does not make you town.

I think my day one play was fine, but from the second day onwards it has been lackluster. I expect some of you may attribute that to depression over the loss of two partners, but the true reason is the start of another large theme game, which turned out to be everything I signed up for and then some. It has been monopolizing my time, resulting in negligence in this game, which I can only apologize for. I have no desire to become a mislynch however, and with that other game currently in night phase, this game now has my undivided attention. I was in fact already reading when I received my prod.

I believe the best part of my play I can point to is from the end of day one. I remember Tierce being credited with the break up of the wagon on Rarity, but her vote was in fact the second to leave it. Mine was the first. In the same post I also considered voting either Arugula or Sudo_Nym, and had I not been lazy reading them in isolation, I could have been among the first voters on the final scum wagon. Make of this what you will.

Katsuki

Right, Katsuki is in fact my strongest town read. I am not in the least concerned about his lack of reads or engagement with the game, that is town Katsuki for you. All that matters to me is Godot attacking him on day one, which all but confirms him as town. This slot is not for lynching, ever.

Rarity

I was already reading Rarity as town for her actions, now her claim is another addition to the reasons she is town. The only reason I'm placing her below Katsuki is that I'm not as familiar with her play as I am with his, but I trust her nevertheless.

DJ-P0n3

Not quite as strong a town read as the two above, but strong enough. Her posts yesterday more or less convinced me to look elsewhere, and her reaction to receiving a letter today strengthens the read further.

Konowa

I can easily follow the logic behind his analysis without him having to spell it out, and I tend to trust people whose thoughts match mine. Unfortunately logic is something that comes easily to any alignment, making this town read considerably weaker than the above ones.

Vi

Vi is not obvtown simply by existing. On the contrary, it is his continued existence that is making people paranoid, myself included. I am also worried about some of his reads, Katsuki in particular, and his thoughts being considerably less transparent than stronger town reads. The main reason I see him as more likely to be town is the way he caught Godot contradicting himself, which makes Vi one of the last people I would see lynched, but he is experienced enough that I could see him sacrificing a weaker partner like that.

Shmugen

I find it ironic how yesterday I would have preferred to lynch him, yet today when there is a wagon on him, I no longer do. I maintain that his current behavior of voting on every wagon and avoiding the game does not match either his town or scum meta, and is therefore null, even though it effectively masks his alignment. What changed my mind was the early posts DJ mentioned, and even more that Shmugen has made no effort to use those posts to his favor.

Charlie

fatlikepig

Tag, you're it. Process of elimination says there is Friendship here.

VOTE: fatlikepig

One thing though. Shmugen, I don't want to lynch you, but I would like to see you try more, even if my own activity has not been exemplary. I rather like you, even in Chrono Trigger where we were on opposite sides, and I know you're better than this. No pony ever won a game by dying for her cause, she won it by making the other poor silly pony die for her cause.

So get on your hooves, trooper.

That is all.

[Feysal]

vote: Feysal

If you were trying to pressure me to post, all you needed was some more patience. I may have required far too many prods, but I am not going to flake out.

[Feysal]

Feysal what happened between yesterday when you agreed with me about the voting block to now with Trixie being in possible scum?

The part of your wagon analysis I agreed with was that Shmugen and Charlie were the two players most likely to have bussed Arugula, although I admit that your point about three scum on a wagon of four being unlikely was also a valid one. What happened was that I read DJ's comments about why Shmugen was town and agreed with her, and today as I for the first time sorted out my reads on every individual player, Charlie and fatlikepig were the two I had left after everyone I had some cause to trust to be town. It conflicts with your analysis, but in the end wagon analysis proves nothing. Sometimes scum do cluster on a wagon, and pure town wagons are not unheard of.

What we really need at this point is a group of five town reads we can get everyone to agree on. If we then lynch everyone else in any order, we should win. DJ and Rarity seem to be trusted by everyone now, and I insist that Katsuki should be too. My only real concerns at this point are whether I should trust you to be number four, and that number five on my list is myself, and I am uncertain whether others agree. If I could name five town reads I was certain of and did not include myself, the game would be all but won, but unfortunately I cannot.

[Feysal]

So your pet Town read, the two people everyone is basically saying "welp Town" about, yourself, and one person you aren't sure about.

Riiiiiiiight.

I'm not sure I like your tone. I've heard it before, but not from you, I associate it with MoI as scum when he derisively dismisses my suspicion of him and casts doubt on both my alignment and intelligence. If you think I am scum, say it to my face instead of using such dishonest rhetoric. I don't know why you would find anything wrong with my list either, since except for the addition of Katsuki it is in effect the same as yours. We both included ourselves, however I'm honest enough to recognize I am not obvtown.

I'll call your bluff and name Pinkie Pie as Town. Then we have Vi, P0n-3, Rarity, Konowa, and Pinkie Pie for the five, and we lynch the other four.

I wonder what bluff you are imagining here? I was entirely serious. I have a very simple rule about bluffing - don't. If you are so notorious that people shudder at the mention of your name and would never dare to call your bluff, then you can do it, but clearly I am not there yet. Until then, never make a bargain you are not prepared to keep.

After your latest posts, you have become the player I am least comfortable naming as town, if I am to be excluded. This is a problem, since I have no alternative to offer. I have spent some time reading players in isolation, trying to find something that would guide me, and I believe I found something. One of the most worrisome posts fatlikepig ever wrote was #30, where he suggests Godot and Mollakins would not be on the same team. I looked at what the context was, and discovered it was in response to you suggesting a team of Salamence, Godot and Poopykins. If you and fatlikepig were both Friendship, I don't see why he would defend your partners from you bussing them. Therefore I conclude that no more than one of you can be Friendship.

If the above is not clear enough, I suggest lynching fatlikepig. If he flips Friendship, I will consider you cleared.

[Feysal]

First off, I am very surprised by Vi being killed. Not by the flip, I could always be wrong about him, but I think he was the easiest of the trusted players to push to a mislynch. Another day, and the paranoia could have gotten the better of him. Now he is one player less to worry about, and that shortens the list so much that I think I can finally solve this.

Feysal, why was it that when you did your PoE analysis yesterday that you picked Trixie over Charlie?

For one reason only. There were votes on you. I did find more that worried me when I read you in isolation later, but at that time I was not aware of it yet.

This leaves Feysal and Katsuki. Since Feysal is a funnier player than Katsuki, it is 100% logical that Katsuki has to go first for the sake of a more entertaining game. That made so much sense I wonder why I didn't study philosophy from the start.

You surprise me. I don't think anyone has ever called me funny before. You on the other hand have been amusing to read, and as much I'd like to think you are town, the list with your name on it has become very short indeed.

VOTE: Charlie

The process of elimination still holds, mostly. I have looked over each of my town reads and reconsidered them, leaving Katsuki, Rarity and DJ-P0n3 as solid town. Konowa continues to worry me, now more than ever, partly because of his behavior around the Godot/Arugula wagons on day one, but also because neither Trixie or Charlie has any problem treating him as town. Consider that together with the obvtown trio they would have a majority, and a guaranteed win by lynching the excluded players. If none of them protest, it must mean that there is another Friendship aligned player among the trusted players. Since neither Trixie or Charlie has done so, from my point of view there has to be Friendship among our town reads. My bet is firmly on Konowa.

That would leave the last Friendship player as one of Trixie and Charlie. I lean more toward Charlie. I am also voting him today rather than Konowa, who I consider the only possible partner to either of them, since a correct lynch today would turn tomorrow into a one-on-one between Konowa and myself. And regardless of the outcome, I am confident that the town would emerge victorious.

By the way, I am aware that I just made myself the only player on the short list to speak up. You could interpret that as me being allied with either Trixie or Charlie and trying to save myself. If you would believe that, then lynch me. And after I flip town, you will know who to lynch next.

[Feysal]

Feysal, you end up being funny by default because there is nobody else to compete. Katsuki & Konowa are boring sticks in the mud (no offense) so that how I decided. Now, things have changed. I feel that there is something wrong with the above post. Your overuse of the word "you" is bugging me big time, and that last paragraph is completely unnecessary. You are on the list, too!

I'm afraid that you completely lost me there. I don't see what the perceived overuse of one word has to do with anything. Also, I always thought if there is a word I use too much, it is "though". But I digress. My logic is based on the town being divided in trusted and suspect blocks, the former consisting of Katsuki, Rarity, DJ and Konowa, and the latter of Trixie, you and myself. If I believed that both you and Trixie were Friendship, I would be fine with all three of us being banished in whatever order, but I don't. If both of you were Friendship, this scenario would be your downfall, so I would expect to see you attacking someone in the trusted block, since you would need that mislynch. Instead I see Trixie naming three suspects, with DJ being the only one in the trusted block, and naming Konowa as town. You made no attack on the trusted block either. If Trixie and you were partners, that play would most likely result in Friendship loss. Therefore I do not believe you are partners, and that one of the trusted players has to be Friendship.

I know I am on the list - I don't know why, but that is beside the point - which is why that last paragraph is there in the first place. I considered several possible scenarios, including ones where I was banished. I feared that attacking Konowa would result in my own expulsion, but after thinking about it I decided it would not be an entirely bad outcome. It would expend our one remaining mislynch, but it would also force people to take my suspicion of Konowa seriously.

Now it looks like I was mistaken about the potential for a Konowa wagon.

UNVOTE: Charlie
VOTE: Konowa

Time for me to claim too. I am Mr Cake the Baker Pony, vanilla town.

My flavor speaks of how great cupcakes are with everything chaotic, including daily business at Sugar Cube Corner, the kids and the apprentice. As I am used to this chaos, discord taking over is my opportunity to make money.

[Feysal]

Oh Feysal, did you ISO everyone before you did that PoE list thing, or was that off the top of your head?

Mostly off the top of my head. I did not read anyone new in isolation while writing it, but I did refresh my memory on some parts of the game.

[Feysal]

@Feysal: Hey! Looks like you're now obligated to comment of Konowa's claim. I remember something about you and Spike.

I have no idea what you're talking about. The only references to Spike I remember seeing were by Shmugen in posts #996 and #1017, and I never understood those either.

One of DJ/Eclipse. One of Spike the backpacker/Baldur's Gate Braeburn.

Konowa + Feysal

Until now I never understood Spike the backpacker was a reference to me. Can you explain what made you think I was Spike?

[Feysal]

I've been prodded, and I recognize that the game is stagnating, but I'm unsure what else is there for me to say. I've stated my belief that there are two Friendship left, and that I don't believe they are both Trixie and Charlie. I believe one of them is, but I'm constantly changing my mind on which. I'm far more certain of Konowa, simply for being the only possibility outside the suspect block.

Regarding DJ's post above, I'm not sure if both Godot and Mollakins random voting Konowa for the same reason makes Konowa more or less suspicious, but it definitely makes him interesting. I really want to see his flip.

Perhaps a logical analysis of the gamestate would be of use?

We guess that there are two Friendship players remaining. We do not know it. This is not important though, since if there is only one, we have an extra mislynch we can afford. I think it is unlikely though, particularly due to there being a cop in the game.

The rest of you don't know my alignment, and for you it may be plausible that both remaining Friendship are in the suspect block. But you should not forget that at least one of those suspects is in fact town, and being able to rule themselves out gives them an advantage. I am trying to use that, and from my point of view, Trixie and Charlie don't make sense as partners.

What I would like to see from everyone right now is an opinion on who they think both remaining Friendship are. I think they are Konowa and one of Trixie and Charlie, and we have one mislynch left, so we can afford to lynch both if we pick the wrong one first.

[Feysal]

Oh, one more thing.

Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if the scum QT was actually called Sugar Cube Corner.

I very much doubt this, as my flavor explicitly mentions that I run Sugar Cube Corner.

[Feysal]

Hello all you ponies people! I'm your Katsuki upgrade. I'll be catching up over the next 48 hours and making my thoughts known.

This is the best news there has been in this game for days. You are very much welcome. I can promise you some laughs at my expense by the time you reach day three in your readthrough.

Two things surprise me on this page, and neither is pleasant. One is DJ having the exact opposite opinion to mine about the RVS votes on Konowa, as I don't think they make Konowa impossible to be Friendship at all. The other is Charlie's notion that Katsuki replacing out was tactical, and that it would make him town. Neither is true. I should know - I've replaced into a serial killer slot left vacant by Katsuki. And he really had no need for any such cheap tactics, since Godot's day one attacks already make him town.

[Feysal]

Feysal has almost 1/3 of the posts of the Mod herself. Is there any reason we haven't power-lynched him yet? I assume if there is I would catch it in my read but I wanted that out of the way early if there was an obv-reason.

Personally I don't understand why I'm even a suspect after the things I've said and done in my few posts. You should know it has been a long time since my activity was indicative of alignment anyway. For the most recent example you only need to look at the activity overview of my latest town game, where I was out-posted by just about everyone. And yet, I lynched scum in endgame.

[Feysal]

Yes you did replace into a SK slot that Flaksuki replaced out of. But it was a very different circumstance given he replaced out because I was bringing strong pressure at him Day 1. I don't see that Kats was in under any significant pressure if the last few pages are any indication.

Why bring up an Apples to Oranges argument in making your point Feysal? Do you have other meta that applies more accurately?

I have no other meta, and the situation being different was precisely my point. It seemed to me that Charlie was declaring your slot as town just because Katsuki replaced out, and he also called it tactical when I see no reason to believe it was so.

1. What would you say you have accomplished with your ‘few posts’ in your own words?

In view of accomplishments, my best time in this game was the end of day one. I strongly disagreed with Rarity's case on DJ and voted her for it, but I quickly realized I was wrong and unvoted, while naming two other suspects I wanted to look into. I took my time doing it, but I came back with a case and vote on scum. Later I successfully defended my town read on Rarity.

As far as alignment tells are concerned, I would point to yesterday. Sudo had just been mislynched, and I felt I had not done enough to stop it. And there was Vi continuing his attack on lurkers, targeting Shmugen and Katsuki, while listing himself as obvtown. In response, I insisted Katsuki was town due to being attacked by Godot early on, I tried to get Shmugen to contribute, and spoke against his lynch. I deliberately challenged Vi by writing my own list and placing myself as town. Imagine if I was Friendship, and either Trixie or Charlie was my partner, meaning we were both on the suspect list. Common sense says I would not argue to remove two of those suspects, thus tightening the net around my team, and cross a stronger town player to do it. I don't see any way my actions yesterday could be viewed as anything but town motivated.

2. You were also strategically power-lurking (in my Modding view, anyway) in Chrono Trigger Mafia so it isn't a Town tell.

I did not say it was, I said it was not indicative of alignment. I also can't remember ever lurking strategically, it is something that just happens, regardless of alignment. There is a reason for it, but it is not something I feel comfortable talking about while I have a game in progress, so it will have to wait.

[Feysal]

This is it, we are now presumably in LYLO. We no longer have any room for error.

I wanted to reply to MoI yesterday, but did not make it in time. Some of it is still relevant though, so here goes.

So you think Charlie is being inconsistent with his assessments. What is your read on Charlie?

Yesterday I believed either Trixie or Charlie was Friendship, and I was leaning toward it being Charlie. I would have voted him had I arrived to the thread in time.

You think you should get Town credit for challenging Town Vi (who suspected you) afterwhich she ends up dead?

I wish I had answered this question earlier and that MoI had commented on it before the day ended. The above is close. I think I should be considered town for challenging town Vi in defense of town Shmugen and town Katsuki,

before

Vi found me suspicious. He attacked Katsuki at the end of day three and focused on Shmugen early day four, but he did not start on me until I had posted my own list. I dare anyone to explain why I would, as Friendship, defend town players and draw suspicion to myself in the process.

Now, what truly matters. Who is Friendship? From my point of view the answer is obvious, they must be Konowa and Trixie. I have trusted Rarity and DJ too long to get paranoid of them now. I admit that yesterday I was wondering how Charlie had figured out who DJ was, and suspected a slip in a QuickTopic. I never mentioned it because I considered the possibility remote, and we really did not need any more suspicion spread around. Charlie flipping Discord rules it out anyway.

Arugula

(8) - The Rufflig, Shmugen, Vi, Rarity,

salamence20

, Feysal, Pinkie Pie, charlie

salamence20

(4) - fatlikepig,

Arugula

, Sudo_Nym,

Poopykins

Rarity (1) - DJ P0n-3

Poopykins

(1) -

Tierce

Sudo_Nym (1) - konowa

Who's the bussing scum here?

This was the very post I first got a town read on Konowa from. At the time it pointed to Shmugen and Charlie as possible Friendship, and I trusted Konowa for arriving to the same conclusion. Now I know better.

Godot/Arugula was not bussed by anyone.

The last Friendship are Konowa and Trixie.

[Feysal]

Vote: Feysal

Have you ever been in LYLO before? You just handed Friendship the opportunity to quicklynch me on a silver platter, without even bothering to wait for everyone to post.

UNVOTE NOW, YOU IDIOT.

[Feysal]

Trixie scum makes less sense than Feysal scum for multiple reasons:

Since I have more time now, I'd like to talk about these reasons of yours.

Wagon Analysis (D1 Arugula/Salamence wagons)

I suppose you are referring to the fact that me being Discord would mean there was no Friendship at all on the final Arugula wagon, while Trixie being Friendship would mean there were three on the Salamence wagon. Yes, such wagons are rare, but not unheard of. I have previously played in a game where trying to find scum on a wagon where there were none was one of the things that doomed the town, and the wagon was on town too in a game with two scum teams. It can happen, and I now know it happened here. I am that confident on my Rarity town read.

I would also like to point out that at the time I voted, my vote could have made the Salamence wagon match the one on Arugula. But I never even looked at him. I had two suspects, and out of them I singled out Friendship.

MagnaofIllusion was killed (townread on Trixie, and a scumread on Feysal)

You are saying that I would have wanted MoI dead? No way. Do I need to remind you that MoI did not elaborate on his reads after reading the whole thread? He was dubious about why I thought I should be considered town, but he had not read that part of the game yet. I believe I could have convinced him otherwise, and in fact, I believe I

did

convince him otherwise.

At Post 474 he starts throwing out the "Let's lynch inactives" Day 1 concept. His first targets are Sudo and Feysal. What do they have in common? Neither are flipped scum Arugula / BB both of whom were very low activity.

In this snippet from the Charlie case, MoI finds him suspicious for targeting myself and Sudo_Nym instead of flipped Friendship, who were also low in activity. This would not make much sense if he thought I was suspicious, now would it?

I was not killed last night (scumreads on both, less verbose than MoI)

This makes no sense. I would much rather have taken my chances with MoI than you. I believe I could have won him over. I especially would have killed you rather than MoI if Trixie was my partner, and if my partner was Konowa instead, why would I have attacked him yesterday?

So much for the reasons you mentioned, but I am even more interested in the reasons you did not. Yesterday you claimed that both me and Trixie would have had motive to kill Vi. Are you serious? Do you really believe that I, as Friendship, would have defended town Katsuki and Shmugen, made Vi suspect me instead, and then killed him on top of it? How stupid do you think I am?

I am also quite amused by how you said your case on me and Trixie made sense with your town read on Rarity. Excuse me,

your

town read on Rarity? Have you forgotten who talked you out of your tunnel scum read on her?

On top of everything else, you say that my reaction to your vote was an attempt to make you look bad. Now if I wanted to make you look bad, I would start from how everyone you voted day one was town, how you made excuses not to vote flipped Friendship, how every lynch you have pushed since Mollakins has been on town... hold on. Why exactly do I have a town read on you?

That

is making you look bad. I voted Friendship when you were still trying to lynch Rarity, I eventually talked you out of it, I spoke against lynching both Sudo_Nym and Shmugen who you voted. And now you call me Friendship. I am supposed to be Friendship who consistently defends town from each other, while you are my exact opposite, Discord who needs help from Friendship not to lynch her friends. You are making absolutely no sense.

It is interesting though that there was no attempt to quicklynch me. I can see two possible explanations for this. Either there was never a moment when both Friendship were online and able to vote me in quick succession, which would be very possible considering how lurky Konowa has been of late, and coming from me that is saying something. Or,

Friendship was already voting me

. Congratulations, you have successfully revived my suspicions of you.

[Feysal]

I would be willing to support a Konowa lynch or Trixie lynch, but not DJ.

Fine. Perhaps I'm just paranoid, but I do think DJ is being irrational.

My preference would be Konowa, for the reason that his flip would force DJ to admit she is wrong, which would make the last day easier. Unfortunately, it looks like DJ is dead set against it.

I'm getting a wild idea here. According to DJ, the fact that I was not quicklynched makes me more likely to be Friendship, and even I can't deny there is some logic in that. But it can also be used against Friendship. If I were to vote Konowa and wait for quicklynch, it would prove very little. But if you did it, and there was no quicklynch, that would prove something.

Whether you want to try this up to you. It requires a leap of faith - you need to trust both me and yourself that Konowa is Friendship.

[Feysal]

Before I respond to anything, I want Feysal to address why he believes this is LYLO.

In short, I think only three Friendship would be rather on the low side for a game of this size, particularly due to the presence of a town cop.

In any case, it is only correct play to treat suspected LYLO as real LYLO. Doing so cannot result in harm, but failing to do so can end in town loss.

I also made an effort to find who was the first to think there were four Friendship and say it. I believe it was The Rufflig in post #1188. Before that Chamber had asked Godot how many Friendship he thought there were, but his reply was useless. Vi also thought five people left could be LYLO, but was not sure. I think the most definite stance expressed on the subject has been mine.

[Feysal]

I can't shake the feeling that Feysal is playing like good scum plays in endgame. He makes irrefutable points, but puts ever so slight a spin on them to make me doubt my reads in a way I can't describe.

This point might have some merit, if in fact I was good as scum. As I read this it suddenly hit me that I have never played before with any of you - that I know of - but while you may have no experience with my meta, my games are easy enough to find. Every time I have described my own meta during a game I have been suspected for it, so I will let you form your own opinions, but suffice to say that I have never won a scum game on site. I did win one off-site, but only because the town tried and failed to lynch an anti-town treestump

three times

.

Do try to explain what you mean with that spin, because I don't know what you're talking about.

He is also being extremely forthcoming and available to answer questions when he hasn't been before, which makes me more suspicious by default.

I find this to be a silly reason to suspect anyone, but to name one significant reason for my increased presence, look up my recent posts and proceed from there. It should be rather obvious.

The most significant reason though is that I believe today to be LYLO, and if I was ever going to get into the game in a big way, it had to be today.

Does anyone believe that *three* scum were on the D1 Sal counter-wagon?

I do. I would like to point out that since Trixie was the first on the wagon, we are not debating whether she would have joined a wagon with two partners already on it. I don't think she would have, but both Arugula and Mollakins seemed like weaker scum players who would.

Does anyone believe that *two* flipped scum random voted a scumbuddy?

I do. In fact I'm convinced they did. What better time to distance than RVS, before it gets serious?

Does anyone believe that *no* scum were on the D1 Godot/Arugula lynch?

I don't just believe it, I know it. Other than me only Rarity is alive from that wagon, and I reject the very possibility she could be Friendship. Here I would like to point out that the final wagon on Arugula was very fast. It went from one vote to five in only 26 minutes, and the remaining votes came the next day within a few hours. Friendship may have been surprised and did not have time to figure out how they should react.

If you were hammered right now and had a Vengekill, who would you use it on, and why? Also, same question again, but Dayvig instead of Vengekill.

Konowa. Same answer to both questions. My reason is that I can only imagine two possible Friendship pairs, and Konowa is in both of them. In other words, if there are two Friendship left like I believe, Konowa has to be one of them. The two possible partners are of course Trixie and yourself. I think your long-time suspicion of her rules out any chance of you both being Friendship.

I don't understand the purpose of the vengekill/dayvig question. Mind explaining so I can better understand so I can respond?

Spoiler: ...

I DO! I DO! Thank you for reminding me about something I wanted to ask DJ about. If my hunch is correct, town just won the game.

DJ, when you're ready, please let me post my guess first. I want to see if I pieced all the clues together right.

[Feysal]

I also think it's 1 scum left and that this is

not

LYLO. This heavily influences my choices. I think Konowa should be lynched today, and Feysal tomorrow if the game is not over.

I'm glad to see that you've come around, but I have one question about this. As I understand it, you would lynch me if Konowa flipped town. Have you considered the possibility that Konowa flips Friendship, but the game does not end? That is what I believe will happen, and for my part I would lynch Trixie tomorrow.

For the record, what Trixie said about me backing down from DJ because no one would support her lynch today was completely wrong. I simply want to lynch the Friendship I am able to, and intended to reconsider DJ and Trixie the next day. Konowa was a stronger suspect than either of them at the time anyway. That has now changed due to the realization I made earlier, which goes a long way to put my doubts about DJ to rest. After consideration I decided that discussing it any further today would do little good and possibly cause harm, so my chance to show off will have to wait until tomorrow.

[Feysal]

Four days already without a post from me? Time sure flies while nothing happens.

I would be quite ready to lynch Konowa, but with Rarity replacing out, I guess there is no choice but to wait. Losing her at this point seriously blows.

[Feysal]

You guys don't have to stop posting because I'm catching up, you know. There's a whole thread of things you can draw my attention to specifically.

I am late, but welcome to the game. I feel there is very little left to be said, and I was ready to lynch Konowa when Rarity replaced out. I still am in fact.

VOTE: Konowa

I have explained my reasons over several posts today, but to summarize, I believe him to be Friendship because of process of elimination and using wagon analysis to mislead town. I am certain of you being town. I am much more confident of DJ also than I was earlier today, and even if she was Friendship, she would not be allied with Trixie. This leaves Konowa and Trixie as the most likely Friendship pair if there are two left, Konowa being the certain one due to being the only player who could be partner with anyone else. Even if there is only one Friendship left, Konowa is a strong suspect. Agreeing with his wagon analysis was pretty much the only reason I ever trusted him, and now it has turned out to have been a red herring.

About DJ, I would prefer to save my realization about her until tomorrow, but I think I can reveal one part of it now. Konowa claimed Spike, and DJ claimed Gilda, and I find it unlikely that both non-ponies would be Friendship. This is a different kind of probability than wagon analysis, since wagons are the result of player actions where anything can and does happen. Designing roles and false claims is up to one person, and every moderator I have ever played with has avoided similarities between false claims.

I don't feel like explaining in length how my Godot read developed, but to be brief, I did indeed believe him to be town early on. Then three things happened that changed my mind. The first was his terrible answer to my question in his last post, followed by his replacement out without warning. Then chamber pointed out how Godot's claim included no motivation to stay Discord aligned. That gave me a new angle to look at his claim from and compare it to my own role, and I saw what chamber meant.

I was then distracted by the fight between Rarity and DJ. I don't think the accusation that I would have pushed Rarity as a counterwagon holds water either. Firstly, Arugula was not even the top wagon and was losing steam. Secondly, I continued to listen to what Rarity had to say and was the first to unvote her, saying I found her more town. Thirdly, Arugula was one of two people I said I would look into when I unvoted. Finally, I don't think my position on the wagon was convenient at all, rather it was up to random chance. What happened to Arugula was a flash wagon, and it depended more on who happened to be online than any other factor. Even then the Salamence wagon was only one vote behind Arugula, but I had no interest in it.

[Feysal]

I think this was the right thing to do. I would have voted for Trixie if it had come to it, since I believe today was LYLO and both Konowa and Trixie are Friendship, but Konowa was my preference. I feared he could have been harder to lynch on the last day. Obviously I agree that Trixie should be the lynch tomorrow, unless I'm wrong and the game ends today.

I guess I can now share my theory about DJ, since the lynch has been decided and it no longer matters. I'm curious to find out if I guessed right, which is why I want to be sure to post this before the game ends.

I was saying that the likelihood of him being lynched on a subsequent day was higher due to his newbie standing and not wanting to bring someone of his playing caliber or lack thereof to a LyLo or

MyLo

scenario. I was not saying "first we lynch him, then we lynch her." Did you misunderstand or are you purposely missing the point?

It also explains Feysal's needing to be prodded so many times, and Trixie's gradually posting less and less and less as the game goes on. One or both of them is scum trying to stay just on the edge of people's radar, waiting for people like Sudo and Shmugen to be mislynched to scare us off lynching lurkers, and then (one or both of them) can lurk until

MyLo

and quick hammer. This paragraph is more my own opinion than anything else. But I did literally just look at the dates on all of trixie's posts, and it has gone from "multiple posts per day" to "one post every 2 to 4 days".

MYLO?

When everyone else has consistently talked about LYLO, DJ mentioned MYLO twice. As should be obvious, MYLO could only happen if there was an odd number of deaths during a day-night cycle. There is obviously no protective role, or Salamence would have survived claiming cop. The town was never going to miss a lynch, and Friendship was not going to miss a kill. Therefore the only way we could reach MYLO was if an extra kill appeared from somewhere.

This was what I'd forgotten to ask DJ about, and what Konowa accidentally reminded me of. I don't think DJ's questions about who to vig or vengekill were hypothetical. I think she is hiding a vengekill up her sleeve, since if she had a vig she would most likely have used it by now. It all seems to add up, even the way she had us guessing what her role was may have been intended to distract us from her reluctance to claim. If it was, it worked beautifully. On top of everything else, Gilda would be my top choice for a vengeful character in the source flavor, after Trixie, who was already in the last game. This would mean that DJ lied about being vanilla, but I'm fine with that. Why should a vengeful townie ever claim?

If this is correct, it all but confirms DJ as town, since outside bastard games vengeful scum are almost unheard of. Even if I just imagined all this, there is still the unlikelihood of both non-ponies being Friendship, and I of course expect Konowa to be Friendship.

[Feysal]

I will probably end up sheeping CES. Because Feysal as scum would probably have killed me to get the easy win with CES on his side.

So here we are. I see you have already brought up the important question. Why would I, if I were Friendship, kill CES instead of you? I of course say that I would not have. As much as I would love to win with style, first and foremost I try to win. I would have picked the safer win with CES alive over the more uncertain one with you alive.

There is little more I could talk about after my posts yesterday, but here are three things I would like to explain.

Why did I not immediately reveal that I thought you were vengeful?

The obvious answer would be that power roles should be kept secret to keep them safe, but in this case that was not it. I did not think you would be killed even if I had guessed correctly and you indeed were vengeful. My reason was that I was worried about your reaction to being outed. The last thing I wanted was to look like I was backing off from you because you had said you would vengekill me, and so I decided to wait.

Why did I not switch to Trixie when I thought she and Konowa were both Friendship?

For this there were three reasons. Firstly, if there was only one Friendship left, I thought it was more likely Konowa than Trixie. Secondly, I wanted to lynch any Friendship I could, and with you opposed to Trixie, Konowa was the easier choice. Thirdly, I expected that Konowa's flip would clear me in a way that Trixie's could not. I remembered you once suspected me and Trixie to be Friendship together, and I did not want to see Trixie flip Friendship only to be lynched myself the next day.

Why did I reveal that I thought you were vengeful at the end of the day?

I wanted to post it before the game ended. I was vain and wanted to show off my discovery, even if it turned out to be wrong, but it was only half of it. At the time I no longer needed to worry about your reaction, and I tried to predict what Friendship Trixie would do and plan ahead. I expected that Konowa would flip Friendship and make me harder to lynch, perhaps so hard that Trixie would decide to kill

me

. Then she could have tried to use my suspicion of you to convince CES to lynch you, which would have been hard, but perhaps the best of several bad choices. That is why I needed to explain why I thought you were town before the day ended, just in case I did not live.

I can't say I would have many reasons to suspect Trixie, which is why I thought Konowa was more likely to be Friendship to begin with. Simply put, I am not Friendship and don't think you are either, therefore Trixie must be. I don't think any more reason than that is needed in LYLO. Both of us are going to accuse and vote the other, and you will need to decide which one to trust.

[Feysal]

I was writing this when the thread was locked. Might as well post it.

Spoiler: ...

Fingers crossed.

You uncross those fingers and stick them in your ears. You are about to receive a mouthful.

So I was supposed to be Friendship for not saying I trusted you to do the right thing. Can you not guess why? I did

not

, and neither did Trixie, which is exactly why she left you alive so you could ruin everything. Did you seriously think I would kill my only defender and trust the WIFOM to turn your head, when no amount of reasoning and the opinions of other town had? Did you think I would willingly place my fate in your hands? Do you think I'm

insane

?

You were my number one concern for the last days, above and beyond who was Friendship, since I knew we had the numbers to get them. Since I could not get rid of you, I had to weigh everything I said and did in an effort not to provoke you, all in vain. Never again. In my honest opinion you are highly unstable and prone to tunneling and irrationality. You have displayed consistently poor judgement and a preference of wifom over reason. Consequently I would not trust you farther than I could spit, and I would trust your judgement less.

I'm sorry.

You should be. I can forgive scum since they are not scum by choice. But I do not forget, and I do not forgive idiots.

Now I want to know who you are. I want to know so I can avoid the displeasure of playing against you again.

SPIT IN FACE: DJ P0n-3

How do you like this attitude, you filthy little traitor? Enjoy your victory, scum. You will never be trusted again.

[Feysal]

I have a few more things to say.

Open question to players in game: I have realized my endgame sucks, what obvious improvement, aside activity, should I work on?

Do your homework.

Do you know why I was convinced that you and Trixie were Friendship together on your last day alive? Not because of your activity. I know better than most how unreliable a tell lurking is. It was because you both completely ignored everything I said in my defense, except for the few things you twisted into scumtells. Neither of you showed any effort to evaluate me or my play, you just kept talking about wagon analysis as if it had any value as evidence. I invited you to look at my meta. Did you? If you had, maybe you would have seen what CES did, what I expect anyone who knows me would have seen, namely that I was as obviously town as I am likely to get. I pointed out my defense of Katsuki and Shmugen as an obvious town motivated action. Did you ever even consider it? If I was the only survivor of my team, there is no way in hell I would rise in defense of two ripe mislynches and draw attention to myself instead. You never commented on any of this. Instead you and Trixie looked like you were desperate to lynch me before I convinced the players who were listening that I was town.

It now occurs to me that part of my rage was misplaced. Since it was in fact Trixie who was town in endgame, it means she actually believed that WIFOM nonsense she spewed. It is damned insulting that you would sooner believe that I was

completely out of my mind

than trust me.

As for me: I originally intended to reveal my main at the end of the game, but with the backlash to my play, I have reconsidered, and instead I would just like to retire this alt, without anyone

else

knowing who I am.

So you cannot deal with the consequences and choose to hide. Fine. This means that in every future pony game I will be obligated to tear every player not in this game into bloody ribbons. Sooner or later one of them is going to be you.

In this game I restrained myself for days, and for what?

I'm through with being nice.

[Feysal]

With that out of the way, there is a personal matter of some importance I wish to discuss.

It is interesting that you noted my posts being carefully worded, since there is more truth to that than you can possibly know. I had a look at the old My Little Pony Mafia for meta on Charlie, and while reading I came across something else, a post of mine where I hinted at the reason, but never expanded on. There, it is out now. Now it remains to be seen if anyone figures out what I'm rambling about here.

I had decided to explain this only when I had no active games. My other game is still ongoing, but I have already flipped, so the time is now. But before I do, I have a question.

Did anyone even wonder about this? Do any of you think you figured it out?

[Feysal]

I thought you were hinting at being autistic. Was that it?

Yes. That was it.

I am autistic.

I thought the hint I gave was a good one. Rain Man is the only creative work I know with an autistic main character. I also thought that if anyone had seen the movie, it would give them an idea of what it is like.

It should be obvious that I'm not a typical case. Clearly there is nothing wrong with my language skills and never has been, and while I'm not the most social of people, I can interact and converse with people easily. My problems are with compulsive, repetitive and ritualistic behavior, and an obsession with detail.

The first of these is probably the easiest to explain. Imagine having a bookshelf. You accidentally push one of the books deeper into the shelf than the others. Most of you would probably leave it be. Some of you would take it out and put it back to form a straight line. I would take out the entire row of books and put them back in one by one, ensuring that the line was straight with a ruler. This is of course only an example, and I have done the strangest things at different times. I once

combed the threads at the ends of my carpet

. Thank goodness I've mostly gotten over this, although I am still bothered by the sight of things like twisted cables.

The second is where it gets worse. By repetitive behavior I mean repeating actions that serve no other purpose than the repetition itself. These actions are similar to rituals, and constantly change. Something I do countless times every day is place my hands in my lap in specific positions before resuming whatever I'm working on. There have been numerous variations of this over the years. Explaining why I do this is difficult, but in the end the repetition is relaxing and helps me clear my mind. I can find tasks enjoyable that would bore most people out of their minds.

Whatever you thought about when I mentioned ritualistic behavior, you were wrong. Rituals are sequences of actions preceding certain tasks, often complex and changing slowly. The bad thing about them is that their complexity tends to grow over time, and they become even more difficult under stress, resulting in frequent failures and even greater levels of stress. I used to have one for getting out of bed where I would kick the blanket straight prior to getting up, but I've been able to abandon it for the most part. Other rituals have been far more complicated, such as when starting something I felt particularly passionate or obsessed about. My starting point would be in the living room, from which I would walk to my room with exactly sixteen steps. I would stop at a specific spot marked by the pattern of my carpet, and later by that spot becoming visibly worn. There I would correct my position with further five steps and stand at attention, my hands at my sides. Then I would take seven more steps to my desk and stand in front of my chair, which I had to leave in a certain position and angle relative to the desk. I would sit down while crossing my arms in a single movement, then scoot to the desk, and if I managed to do everything perfectly, I could relax and concentrate on whatever I wanted to do. I dare you to laugh. I'm fully aware of how ridiculous this is, but there is nothing funny about being compelled to do this kind of thing. I did not even mention every detail. If I failed to perform the ritual to perfection, I would start to worry about things like stride length and the positions of my fingers as my stress kept rising.

I bet that sounded pretty bad, but it is not the worst part. Obsessing over details is the worst part.

I like to think that having an exceptional attention to detail can be useful, except when I go completely overboard. This, more than any of the above, is the bane of my activity in online mafia, and every kind of creative hobby I have ever loved. When I post, the process starts with planning what I want to write, and I have significant portions practically memorized before I even begin to type. After I do I read over what I have written, then rewrite and reread it. Often several times. The worst part is I don't always even change anything between drafts, but I start over because a single typo breaks my concentration. Another thing I pay attention to is that my fingers press the center of the key. And these are by no means the only distractions I'm vulnerable to. A tiny fly in my field of vision, a stain on the computer monitor, or literally

nothing at all

can force me to start writing the current line or paragraph from the beginning. Note that I'm not just using the word for emphasis, I am capable of working up my stress level for no apparent reason whatsoever. It is simply not enough that the end result is perfect, the actual act has to be perfect also. This means I get stuck on details no one else knows are there, which one could say don't even exist.

As if that was not bad enough, I have a way of turning even the simplest tasks into major exertions. For example, I like moving the mouse cursor in straight lines, which is why I often drag it along the edges of the screen. Imagine trying to reply to a post when just

clicking the reply button

requires a contest of willpower. You try to force your hand to move the mouse, but your fingers twitch, your hand jerks, while your nerves get torn to shreds. For some reason moving the mouse to the right is considerably harder than to the left. I have no clue why, it just is.

So now you know. Despite my low post rate I spend easily as much or more time on mafia games than the average player, I just spend it struggling with my own idiosyncracies instead of something productive. Why have I never explained this before, you may ask? For one thing, this is not something that is exactly easy to talk about, in fact I used to be ashamed of it. Outside immediate family there are only a handful of people who know this about me. And the worst part is that I know I am capable of so much more and hate making excuses. Links to my offsite games have always been available on my wiki page, but I doubt anyone here has ever looked at them. Today I want you to look at this, the activity overview of my first mafia game ever. That is me at the top, leaving everyone else in my dust. Of course that was a different site, with fast-paced games where conversations often resembled real time chat with many short posts. I also outlasted all other prolific posters, being the last town player left in endgame. But none of these factors come even close to explaining my fall from grace. The major difference was that in my first games I was completely relaxed and carefree, and my problems had no effect yet on my play. Somewhere down the line my passion became corrupted by obsession, and with it came the problems.

I have no idea what you should think or do about this. But at the very least I want you to know that no matter how frustrated you get with my inactivity, you can never come even close to my own frustration with my inability to post.

[Feysal]

I have a question, if you don't mind talking about this further. As far as I know, your job involves coding in some form or another; how do compulsive behavior and obsession with detail factor in it and affect your work?

My work is affected by similar problems as my mafia play, but less extreme. I should explain that the root of most of my problems is in trying to achieve perfection at things I get passionate about, and having irrational standards. Something is truly perfect only if the manner in which it was done was perfect, which usually means compulsive behavior of some sort. This however means that I have an obvious escape. If I can convince myself that something does not need to be perfect, I can avoid most problems.

This means I resort to different mind tricks. I can lie to myself that I'm only working on a draft version, when I know I will probably never have time to make the theoretical final revision. I can also try to deliberately lower my requirements for perfection. Taking that first step can be hard on me, but once I do it and whatever I'm working on has been irreversably corrupted by the act, it gets easier. This way I can concentrate on making code work instead of making it perfect. I am capable of delivering code on time, but I have no doubt that my productivity is impaired. On the plus side, I believe the code I do deliver is of high quality. Things like descriptive variable names, clear structure and generally good coding style are second nature to me.

The above applies to individual coding assignments. In group assignments I have almost no problems, since the end result is in my mind imperfect by default due to the involvement of other people. Similarly I can easily review and debug code I have not written myself, since it is not mine, my standards don't apply. This gives me the idea that I should really try playing as a hydra. If my past group assignments are any indication, it could really help me be more active, even with the additional overhead.

Tying this to the above section: have you considered editing some CSS (via Stylish or similar) to see if it would help with this in particular? Alternatively, using the Tab key or equivalent so you don't have to move the mouse so much?

I do use keyboard shortcuts extensively, and the one thing I like in a PC environment as a long time Mac user is being able to do more with the keyboard. But I should mention that that particular example was rather extreme. My problems become much worse under high stress. More often than not, if I'm so worked up that I have trouble moving the mouse, I take a break. I go for a walk, read a magazine, or pretty much do anything else for an hour or two to unwind. Afterwards when I return to what I was doing in a more relaxed mood, the mental block has disappeared.