LMAO. That's very cute. Gee thanks, wizard.
I've given the thread a quick skim to see where it's gone. Mostly a split vote between FF and Lab Rat. So I've gone back to the beginning of the game to re-read how this thing between FF and Lab Rat (and everyone else) got started. I'm making this post now and placing a premilinary vote based on that because nightfall is only two hours away. I have a lot to read in actual detail now... to cover all that's been posted from last night to the present time.
My vote is subject to change as I digest the rest of what's been said. I expect I'll probably change my mind back and forth a few times as I read more so I don't know yet whether my vote will stay where it is or not. Given the timing now, however, it's very possible that I'm not going to get very far as I also have other things to do while reviewing the thread. With that...
On the first page of this game, FF said he has a lot of free time now and intends to post a lot. LR replied that mass posting would just confuse people... so it would not seem pro-town for him to do that.
That was a good point to make (in red). Then where LR went on to ask if that was a signal to the communicating mafia (in blue), she isn't just asking him something. She is also now suggesting FF must be non-communicating mafia and hoping he might connect in the thread with his communicating teammates. Okay, that's good too. LR is fishing here for a reply from FF in which he might incriminate himself. Just one way of kicking the bushes and looking for clues, as any townie should be doing.
So far, there's nothing scummy about LR's question. It's a not-so-subtle way for LR to pose a tricky question to find out if FF is going to slip up, depending on how he replies.
In this response from FF, he replied to the challenge that...
Green part - maybe he's NOT non-communicating... implying, therefore, that FF has no reason to leave clues or send signals to anyone in the thread to attract the attention of communicating teammates.
Blue part - he's not communicating with LR so LR can't know with certainty which role he has anyway.
Red part - it's okay for the mafia to invest him and kill him because (implying that he's a townie) if he dies it leaves behind a trail pointing back to those (implying mafia) who voted to kill him.
Tells me FF recognized a potential trap LR was proposing and he tried not to fall right into it. So far, this is reasonable bush kicking and a reasonable counter-move in response where FF avoids an opportunity to stupidly set himself up.
LR ignored the balance of FF's full reply and chose to key in, instead, on one extracted portion of his answer. Then she used that part to spin FF's statement into something FF didn't actually say.
Green part - FF did not ask the mafia to investigate him at this point in the game. Looking at FF's entire response, I read that as him giving a reasonable and seemingly pro-town answer.... refuting LR's suggestion he is trying to communicate with anyone by dropping hints in the game, refuting any possibility that LR knows what his role might be to begin with, and simply stating it's okay if the mafia kills him (by getting him lynched) because that leaves clues behind the town would need later to track down who they (the mafia) are.
LR having asked a good bush-kicking type question actually got a good pro-town answer in response. But by zeroing in on the part she highlighted in red and ignoring the rest, LR used part of what FF said as a basis for making him appear to be scum.
This is where it seems (to me) that LR basically pounced on FF and decided to present him to us as possible/likely scum. FF's apparent scumminess, therefore, was something LR applied to him. Not something FF revealed on his own.
Is that a pro-town approach by LR to flush out real clues in this game that might lead us to rooting out the real scum? I don't believe so. It appears more (IMO) that LR was the one being scummy at the beginning of all this because she (deliberately?) misunderstood FF's post and used his reasonable reply to build a case against him.
Bush kicking is what a townie does to reveal the truth about a person's role when they are lying to us. Case building is something the scum does to villify a known or suspected innocent to get them killed.
Blue part - LR used the last game's play as her justification to suspect and vote FF for lynching. In truth, his role last game isn't connected to whichever role FF was assigned in this game.
Red part - LR offers FF to the rest of us as a good candidate for lynching. Then waits to see if others take the bait.
I vote to lynch Lab Rat.
I find LR's tactics from the start of this game to be highly suspicious. It seems (to me) she tried to make FF look scummy on purpose, ignored his pro-town position in response, and went on further in that single direction hoping she could get him lynched. That isn't a pro-town way to play as it doesn't help the town find (real) scum at all. On the contrary, this makes it much more difficult for the rest of us to later sort out the truth from the lies as other players begin to post their input (some slanted and some sincere) and the person under scrutiny (in this case, FF) gets flustered.
FF may be scum or he may be innocent, but it was too soon at that point yet in this game for us to be able to tell which side he was really on. Then.... after LR placed him in the hot seat like this... plus his own history of being his own worst enemy for making conflicting, contradictory, and confusing posts anyway... FF isn't the type of player who has the clarity, skill, or ability to clear himself of perceived scumminess whenever someone has put him under this kind of pressure.
LR has also continued to argue with anyone who disagrees with her about anything she says. That doesn't give me the impression that she even wants to be objective or open minded about this game because she consistently refuses to consider more than one possibility or other points of view.
I'll keep reading now and will post again if I have time while reading the thread between now and nightfall.
