Alisae V Pine: Trees Apparently Make Good Treestumps

[Gamma Emerald]

Bargain: Neighborizer

For something else I might still wait but I think I need a hood to stay engaged

[Titus]

bargain: Neighborizer

I'm telling a funny joke, once my sense of humor develops.

[popsofctown]

What a great way to follow up the previous post, you guys.

[Formerfish]

What a great way to follow up the previous post, you guys.

Shhh... let them claim... just get your popcorn and enjoy the show.

[Menalque]

are you fucking kidding me

[Something_Smart]

Bargain: Neighborizer

For something else I might still wait but I think I need a hood to stay engaged

?????????

????

?

[Menalque]

seriously, I can't believe that everyone who has asked for fruit today is actually scum so instead I'm forced to conclude that we have town who are literally just playing anti-town

like what the fuck are you actually doing

[Something_Smart]

Do you not follow my reasoning for doing so?

[Menalque]

my only explanation for this is that we're pretty good on SS/FB!scum and this is scum intentionally trying to deflect? but again, struggling to believe that literally everyone after fruit today is scum

[mastina]

@Mastina, why wouldn't Pine select you and GreyIce?

Respectfully, Titus, you asked the wrong question.
I said it before, so I'll say it again: there's nobody in this game that Pine wouldn't select.
If there were a player Pine wouldn't select, simply put: they just wouldn't be in the game. Everyone in here has a reason Pine would pick them, and nobody has a compelling reason why Pine wouldn't pick them. Every pick is possible, even though some are more plausible/probable than others.

The right question to ask isn't why wouldn't Pine pick someone, but why Pine DIDN'T pick them.

Pine didn't pick GreyICE because these games are, at their very core fundamental nature, designed to be fun. Jingle wanted the game to be fun as explicitly as is possible, Pine wanted the game to be fun and this has been confirmed as explicitly as is possible given the format. (Jingle all but modconfirmed that Pine wanted the game to be fun and Pine has himself stated he wanted the game to be fun, something he has no incentive to lie about.)

Sure, yes. Pine wants to win; Pine wants to be strategic. But while he wants to be strategic and win, he also wants to be fun.
And simply put: the GreyICE-LLD bout on D1 was such a toxic cesspool reminiscent of a much much much worse version of Civilization Mafia (a game that Pine, in spite of being scum, infamously hated)...and that? That wasn't fun, so Pine wouldn't stand for it. He wouldn't allow for the LLD-GreyICE bus to be such a toxic cesspool, which means that he didn't approve of it, which means that GreyICE isn't scumbuddies with his wife.

As for why Pine didn't pick me?
His message to me is a good lead-in to describing why he didn't:

Message

Dearest mastina!

My oldest friend (on site), your betrayal wounds me to my core. How dare you take up with that self-righteous paladin, Alisae? Granted, you were loyal to me last year, and it's fun to watch you detonate, but I'm aiming for a clean sweep this year, and you'll help me achieve it more on the outside than within.

So speaks Eldest Pine, Lord of the Forest, Master of the Tree Sovereignty

Good luck!

(Speaking of, my response to Jingle after I got that message:
WAIT.
JINGLE.
I WAS JOKING ABOUT THE NEIGHBORHOOD.

J O K I N G

.
Jingle's response:
It's more fun for me if I let Pine taunt you whenever he wants. )

Basically, Pine, quite correctly, called the fact that I do more damage to the town as part of it than I do as not part of it. Of course. On D1. I was laughing at him for this--as a bodyguard, I knew something he didn't; I was going to die early, fucking up his plans by stopping a key nightkill and thus not damaging the town but rather fucking him over.

And then D2 started and Pine got the last laugh on that subject because HAHA GUESS WHAT MASTINA IN SPITE OF YOU PROTECTING ANK SHE STILL DIED ANYWAY AND AS A CONSEQUENCE YOU GET FUCKED AND DAMAGE THE TOWN IN SPITE OF YOUR PLANS TO THE CONTRARY.

ButSTILL.

Pine didn't pick me because I am a poor choice.
I, similarly to Krazy, feel miserable as scum.
I am someone who can't carry to lategame as scum in 95% of my scumgames--as a scum member, my job is setting up for the lategame. Creating the plan which wins us the game and putting the pieces in place for it, positioning my team so that they can achieve that wincon. I'm not a good scum player because I endgame the town; I am a good scum player because after being lynched by the town, the town ends up in a worse position than they were before assuming my plan was followed through on.

People are just too paranoid of me being scum.
In my last 15 or so games, over half have had a mastina mislynch (or misvig). I think the total's like 9-10/15? Some high number like that.
You were in one of them--a D1 mislynch, no less, where you among others misidentified my towngame as being my scumgame even though it very fucking much wasn't.
Mind you--it's been almost a full year since I last rolled scum. This was true last Pine game, too, but critically unlike last game where I made the error of telling Pine about this fact prior to his draft, this game I was smart enough to keep my mouth shut the entire time and not mention anything just in case. (You might notice I didn't talk in the signup thread beyond my initial confirmation; this was the reason for it. I figured the less I talked, the higher my chances were of not getting drafted because I very much didn't want to be scum.)

But basically--Pine didn't have reason to select me, because the role I had in the scumteam was filled by other players on it. LLD did the setup parts I would've done (LLD did what I did last game--quite literally. My job last game was to die D1 rapidly; LLD's job this game was to die D1 rapidly). He picked other players (sayyyy, Krazy, the worst, and/or Aristophanes) to help gel with the team and fill in some of the mechanical gaps in the game.

Pine had good reason not to select me--he knew that I'd be lynched; he knew it'd be better for his team if it was a mislynch.
Pine has seen me in games enough to know that while I occasionally have moments where I shine, there's plenty of toxicity I bring, infighting with the town. I brute force a bullheaded stubborn push on players I think are scum and hard-defend the players I think are town. He probably expected me to hard-defend LLD for that matter, but that's optional.

I am not a good team player; I fight with the town all the time. I create noise. I create chaos. I am a distraction. Fuck, the fact that I bodyguarded someone who died the night I protected them is proof enough of this. People think that I am a good town player in spite of me, consistently, telling them otherwise. Pine knows me well enough to believe me when I say I'm not a good town player. I understand why Jingle made me a bodyguard; it's a way to take me out of the game before I do more harm than good. But Pine was counting on me doing more harm than good and thanks to how N1 played out he succeeded.
(Which is a big gigantic fuck you, mind you, but I digress.)

[Gamma Emerald]

Is there a plan in place?

[Something_Smart]

Menalque, an you stop talking past me?

Pedit: oh hi mastina.

[Something_Smart]

*Can you stop talking past me.

Seriously, it's getting annoying.

[Menalque]

Do you not follow my reasoning for doing so?

Well, sure, if I was actually TRing you outside of that I'd get it. I still don't get why you'd float actually asking for it without Ali's permission. Like I think in terms of benefit there's a very good chance scum get more from having an extra vote than we do from keeping town!you alive one extra day when we'd just lynch you the next day for grabbing governor fruit like that?

[Titus]

Just because someone believes there's an optimal strategy doesn't mean the rest of us must follow. I LOVE neighborizer, regardless of alignment. My best wins come with a neighborizer.

Pedit: Reading mastina wall and follow up posts later.

[Menalque]

Menalque, an you stop talking past me?

Pedit: oh hi mastina.

*Can you stop talking past me.

Seriously, it's getting annoying.

I don't think town!you seriously thinks I'm doing this when posts are flooding in and getting ninja'd all over the place

[Something_Smart]

Feels like a post town-mastina would make.

[Titus]

Is there a plan in place?

Vig Fire unless he agrees his use is leashed by Alisae?

[Menalque]

Just because someone believes there's an optimal strategy doesn't mean the rest of us must follow. I LOVE neighborizer, regardless of alignment. My best wins come with a neighborizer.

Pedit: Reading mastina wall and follow up posts later.

there's a someone who believes there's an optimal strategy who was just NIGHTKILLED and rather than discuss whether or not we should PAY MORE ATTENTION TO DISCUSSING WHETHER THERE IS, IN FACT, AN OPTIMAL STRATEGY you and gamma decided to just come in and fuck things all sorts of up which also serves to derail the discussion of WHETHER THERE IS AN OPTIMAL STRATEGY

[Something_Smart]

I don't think town!you seriously thinks I'm doing this when posts are flooding in and getting ninja'd all over the place

Okay it's fair that I jumped the gun there (though I did assume that if 5556 and 5558 had been thought of at the same time, they would have been in the same post).

...but how on earth is that related to my alignment? Do you think I lose all ability to understand what other people are doing when my role PM is red?

[Firebringer]

Titus, u known me how long? And you think I would obey a leash?

It hurts when ur friends don't even know u.

[mastina]

bargain: fruit governor 1 shot

NOW THIS IS MY KIND OF FRUIT!!!

VOTE: Firebringer

[the worst]

what's your logic on the worst specifically, mastina?

Basically:
This looks like his scumgame, not his towngame.
the worst, similarly to Aristophanes, is a team glue; he'd help make the scumteam be held together incredibly well.
the worst is an incredibly skilled scum player.
the worst is an incredibly good town player who Pine has reason to not want to be town.
the worst makes total sense as a Pine pick and given that this also looks like his scumplay rather than what I'd expect from him as town...

@townies lynch this
Mastina is not reading my ISO critically with intent to sort me. She has seen both my scum and town games in this environment. This game is literally a classic example of my town meta in a large game, yet she's mystically reaching an entirely incorrect conclusion.

It's a lynch case. It is not a case to solve my alignment.

[Firebringer]

seriously, I can't believe that everyone who has asked for fruit today is actually scum so instead I'm forced to conclude that we have town who are literally just playing anti-town

like what the fuck are you actually doing

fake

[Firebringer]

seriously, I can't believe that everyone who has asked for fruit today is actually scum so instead I'm forced to conclude that we have town who are literally just playing anti-town

like what the fuck are you actually doing

fake

not only fake but u were literally trying to get a fruit earlier.