MetroiD

I can't believe I never commented on this one. That Terrier has got to be one of my favourite Train MOCs I've seen in recent weeks! I'd really have loved to see in person who this little monster pulls... Hope you had a fun show and I'm sure you've received tons of questions about your beautiful model!

Loving this one. I was almost thinking you'd stick exclusively to steamers, it's good to see you still keeping other locs as well.

Kinda reminds me of something... Great MOC, your rendition of the MRS-1 looks awesome! Oh and btw - dibs on building a Miracle Express!

Twittily twattily awesome! Whaddaya know, this has been my first lynch - it's been a long time coming, I guess Hinck, this game is absolutely awesome and I thoroughly enjoyed panicking playing it! It was also so cool to have Draggy and Shadows in a Mafia game once again, last time I played with them was back in Scouty's Imperial Soldiers Mafia, so it was definitely very nice to have them back on board

Seriously though, what's the point in keeping up this charade. By now you should be well aware that I'm Town, but it's already too late to do anything about it anyway. You've obviously been convincing enough for quite a chunk of our shipmates to follow you and the fact that you insist on pulling the moves I was predicting for Day 4 anyway is just plain annoying. Yes, I'm oh so scummy for trying to be a good decoy and not coming up with incredibly absurd explanations for everything. I've been a very very bad boy. Oi Bess, come give me a spank, will ya! No offense Shan, but she's just way cuter.

How very appropriate to now say that you've got all the info, Shanalon, but heavens are forbidding you from putting it to good use. Devious indeed. Way to go throwing me to the lions... but I guess that's that. Well done, shipmates, you've gone and lynched someone you know could have been vital to our sucessful defence of the Royal Family. Once again though, I've been busy making sure people have enough info at their disposal to hopefully get back to lynching Assassins tomorrow - so my death should hopefully be very useful. And because I know that tomorrow quite a few of you will still go with the obviously lame excuse "Ah, but he was so outspokenly inadequate in the Day threads!"... I thought I'd present you with a brief overview of why I've been doing what I've been doing before I go. Day 1. I initiated a vote against someone other than Charles based on my observations thus far. It was curious to see what would happen and I was surprised by how many people were eager to jump on a bandwagon which hardly had any solid proof whatsoever. I pursued with my vote aggressively to see where that would lead us, and also due to the fact that her defence didn't convince me Bess was innocent. (No, brother, I'm not obsessing about her. But even if I were, can you blame me...) The stand-off that resulted at the end of the day though was also a curious thing to witness - along with people's general reactions. Fairon also tried to employ some reverse psychology tactics there, by obviously switching his vote to see if that might help make a sudden change - which it didn't, so he naturally changed his vote back to Charles since that's the person he was initially wary of. His move was unsuccessful - as was mine, after all. We didn't find out anything about the potential scumsters based on their reactions, but tomorrow you can still go back and see how they voted to hopefully get your facts straight. Day 2. The odds were stacked against Ruben, who had unfortunately been protected on the previous night. Considering the info I was aware of, I though that it might be a good time to once again try and give us something to talk about, and at the same time see how people would react to openly sharing so much information this early in the game. I was hoping for one of the following: a) The Town investigator would investigate me the following night and we'd be able to work together from Day 3 onward. b) The Scum would jump at the opportunity to defend their fellow greenie. I wasn't really holding my breath over that possibility though. c) The Scum would see right through but still be desperate enough to kill or (preferably) block me that night. With c), I was hoping that there'd either be someone there to see who was actually blocking me; or that this block would be somewhat of a wasted move for the Scum which would allow the investigator and the rest of Town's power roles to act without the danger of being blocked. As it turns out, my fine beard and eyebrows do indeed seem to have been blocked on Night 2. Day 3. I started off by stating the obvious - which is, Zerard's left glove did turn grey for just an instant. Metasteaming or not - you be the judge, but I was trying to get a discussion of sorts going. My observation was completely ignored. Then we had the usual "Oh, our Queen is dead" stuff going on, after which Shanalon got started with her lynch against me. Throughout the ordeal, we were in contact via PMs and she basically told me the following: a) There's another person who's claimed to be the protector to her, with said person not being in contact with me; b) My claims of having been blocked on night 2 could not be true since the person who claimed to be the blocker had remained inactive; c) She tried to investigate me (or have me investigated, if that's more correct) - and failed. Not due to a block though. d) I need to reveal to her my identity, my alter ago, everyone I'd been in contact with, as well as every other single thing, and also, if possible, measure the size of any sausages lying around and report it to her. I didn't measure the sausages. I did, however, supply her with sufficient information based on which she could cross-reference the claims that had been made to her so far. How she decides to use that info will hopefully give the rest of you a good indication on what you should do next. Once again, do not forget that all the alleged direct claiming and indirect investigating that's been going on is admittedly weird, but at least I'm not coming up with crazily convoluted theories about it all. And if you people think I'm suspicious / scummy for not wanting to share with you the name of the protector and/or shout out from atop the mast that I'm them, well think again (and listen to the voice in the sky while you're at it). This situation we're in most probably can't and won't be handled with a swift mass show of faith, so perhaps being anxious to the point of almost being paranoid was not such a bad move on my part, after all. I guess that about sums it up. Today's lynch is a bad move, Barge, but please make the most of it by taking care of those slimy greenies. Ta ta!

Great, I see that the regulars who only turn up twice per day have already managed to cast their vote, using little reasoning of their own, no less. Yes, Charles, Polly, I'm referring to you... among others. I hope that the ones among you who are still wondering what's going on here will find comfort in knowing that as of this moment, there are a number of people who possess the full information which I am also privy to. If this lynch is successful, then I expect Shanalon to take the necessary measures in order to ensure that at least one more Assassin meets their fate on Day Four. If, however, she is, after all, a greenie in disguise, I believe the people present on board the H.M.S. Brutal should know what to do upon seeing the results from my lynch. I've done my best to get people talking every day so far - by starting a vote against Bess on Day One, and then by publically sharing my background info on Ruben's protection on Day Two. The way I see things, even though I might admittedly not have been the best of Royal Family defenders and even if I've been wrong, my work as a decoy will hopefully not go amiss and my "confusing behaviour" should provide the remaining Royal Family loyalists on board this barge with enough food for thought with regard to the remaining Assassins. In the meantime though, don't expect me to just drop dead like a good mislead Townie should. There was talk of other potential targets earlier today. Despite realizing that some of you will surely take the chance to fire another broadside at me for "scummily" stating my concerns yet once again, here's what I've been thinking. Polly was quick to vote on Day One, yet stated that she was keen on keeping it "nice and even three votes all". Then, just seconds later, she said that she "certainly wouldn't want the day to end in a tie and without lynch", even though throughout Day 1 she never seemed fully convinced in either of our "suspects"' affiliation... Obviously, that didn't stop her from voting very early on, which however was not the case on Day 2. Was she then actually trying to protect a fellow greenie and busy trying to mitigate the damage -- or was she just too perplexed to act on Shan's claims, like the rest of us? And if the latter is true, then I wonder why she never opted to voice her observations and concerns? Then, with little deliberation, she decides to once again follow suit today and conveniently place a vote against me while I'm still hot property. Apparently, no qualms there whatsoever. Of course, I've done my best to discuss most of the above issues with Polly before speaking out before the rest of my shipmates here. The thing is, up until now I was more worried that, just like myself, she might be another person who's very anxious about this situation we're in. However, Polly was incredibly quick to call me out for being overeager to randomly lynch someone just because earlier today I was asking her in private what she thought about the Bess vs Charles situation from Day One and whether we should think it over once more. Obviously though, she's having no problems with being eager to vote without voicing any actual concerns of her own out in public. I'm sorry, Polly, I've tried very hard, but I don't feel I can trust you. I was looking forward to much more contribution from you and your weird behaviour throughout all three days so far has left me very confused. Vote: Polly Altamont (Pandora)

That you really need to buy me a steambeer. Or a steamship. Whichever is cheaper around here. But thanks for the high praise. And - I said I'd no longer consider you "Town", but that doesn't exclude you having some Neutral role and going with whichever side seems to be prevalent...

That's not true, I am not claiming that Shanalon is scum. I returned some of the "scum or stupid" tongue-in-cheek banter with more of the same, but, as a few of our shipmates could tell you, up until a few hours ago I was convinced that there was no way Shan would be scum. I'm just arguing that her intuition / conviction / however you call it regarding my allegiance is wrong in this case. However, are you really waiting for me to point out someone else and say "Lynch them instead"? I've spent half the day discussing things with other people on this ship and wracking my brain to see if my worries about their allegiance are justified or not. I'm no closer to being certain about anyone's allegiance than I was when this day started. For example, there have been some voting patterns and observations in terms of contribution that I found curious, but I need to hear more from those people before I can actually place a vote against them. Bess here might say that I didn't take so long to place a vote against her and she'd be right. What worried me about her behaviour is what's troubling me once again with some of our shipmates - one minute she's saying one thing, and the next minute she's totally changed her mind. "I have no job. / Your innuendo-filled rants are not helping. / Let me defend someone before he has the chance to speak up." was a very hard pattern to follow, which is why I was convinced I needed to hear from Bess, by voting against her. If this Day also progresses as quietly as the previous ones have though, and without more contribution from the people I'm wary of, I'll share my concerns with the rest of you. Well, I notice that Bess has just spoken up as I was making my feelings known. I understand her point of view, and her decision to act as she has, but it only helps emphasize what I suggested earlier. To answer your question - I don't know whether Charles' voice is green-tinted or not. Just as I don't know whether you're really scum or not. I just found your initial contributions harder to understand, and I kept it up after that because your defence didn't persuade me I was wrong. If you are indeed a protector of the Royal family and feel offended, I will go against my unapologetic nature in saying I'm sorry if you found my aggressive behaviour irritating. But bearing a grudge about it would be the same as me being mad with Shanalon for trying to lynch me today. I'd much rather have such things happen, and then ensure contingencies are in place so that our Barge members can have more info on the next day based on which to get the rest of the Assassins, then just stay silent throughout the day and wait for the Scum to make their next move.

OH! But nope, it isn't. I was talking about the protector claims you've already received in private by someone else on this ship. You know very well what it was that I meant, and if you've now decided to play the "oh look at him, he's so scummy he even contradicts himself all the time" card, it really tends to reek of helplessness. I'm starting to ask myself who it is that you're actually trying to convince here. Getting ready for tomorrow this early on? Come on, you still have time to solidify your defence for tomorrow. Besides, aren't you a bit too quick here - my fate is far from being sealed, your persistence has so far only been shared by someone I'm pretty sure you're working with behind the scenes anyway. I have reasons for acting as I did, and I'm actually convinced that at least some of our shipmates will have understood those. Weird why you'd continue to insist on not understanding a thing but please, be my guest. I'm safe in the knowledge that, regardless of your allegiance, Town will be aided greatly even if I do end up being lynched today. Although, to be quite honest, I have much more faith in these people's common sense.

Funny how you two seem hellbent on not seeing something that I'm sure is plain for everyone else to see on board this ship. I even suggested that thing to you on a number of occasions in private, Shanalon, but probably the "scum or stupid" conundrum needs to be asked yet once again here. It seems very appropriate for you to keep stating the same pointless observations again and again till eternity if you really want a crucial member of the Royals offed, but if you are indeed a defender of the Royal family, as I am, this will definitely backfire on you tomorrow. Once again, I urge you to review the information you have at your disposal and get back to me with the very little info I requested. Obviously, it's very simple - I want to share my info with more than one person; and if you have indeed confirmed a "Bargie", I'd have no problem in speaking to both of you. If, however, you don't and you're just weaving some elaborate schemes, you can continue threating me as you've done all day; that won't make me spill any more beans. As to you, Fairon - your comments really struck a nerve with me. My contribution has indeed been dubious and I've made little to actually help form a hub of loyal Royal supporters, which provides a huge dent in any defence I put up. And while I'd be more than happy to work with you, your keen desire to help Shan here with her pointless lynch is making me feel quite wary of it all.

So, in general, I'm scummy looking based on the fact that I don't want to share with you who the protector is; and also based on my actions so far. Let's see about the latter then. Day 1, I was vocal enough to vote against a person whom I thought looked scummier than Charles. If I were scum, you could easily replace "vocal" with "stupid" there. I also came out with all the info I knew as early as Day Two, in hopes it might help us further along the way. If I were scum, you could repeat the replacement drill. And then, if you believe I'm scum, you also say I claimed the existence of a false role. In public, no less. Or claimed that I'm in touch with a role I can't be sure of - as early as Day 2. Why the hell would I even consider doing that? Why would I not, for example, just lay low like other people around here and go with the flow, instead of trying so hard to get you people talking in the day thread? Because, as any other person who's loyal to the Royals will tell you, having people speak out is the best way to gauge other people's reaction. Hell, I found it amazing that after I shared my findings on Day 2 there was little to no interest in that; and now you're the first person who's actually revisited this whole thing! This has got to be the most secretive Town Ship Barge I've ever seen... So coming straight to you and claiming is all it takes to earn your trust? And people are almost certainly Assassins if they demonstrate a high level of uncertainty / anxiety about confiding in anyone else; especially if the information they have is sensitive? Please, Shanalon, I know you're smarter than that, and I'm not even trying to rub your ego here. Considering how little I've told you, and how convoluted the entire investigation premise seems to be, I'm guessing they're protecting by having someone else kiss the frog and then ensuring that a third person places it on the head of the person who needs to be protected for the night. I won't even ask what kind of lies they've been telling you about who's been protected so far, but at least now I know that if I do actually get lynched, you'll know who the next Assassin is. Either way, you can trust whoever and whatever you like, but I'm taken back by what you seem to perceive as normal / straightforward considering the whole setting we're in. Just bear in mind that if you are indeed working for the good of the Royal family, you're not on the right track here - and if you have any doubts as described above, now would be a good time to act on those. Trying to convince yourself and the rest of our shipmates here that I'm scum just because I've refused to reveal the protector is not a wise move. Neither is trying to explain to me how my story is full of holes - since my story is clearly there for all to see in the Day thread. It's really good to see you're not sitting on your hands and this was the kind of thing I was hoping for earlier today - but hopefully, other people will also take note.

Unfortunately, you're right about that... And to that charge, I'll most readily admit. It was my decision to bring that information to everyone's knowledge and it's cast a very dubious light on the protector. No way for me to undo that though, so I was hoping they could just move on and vest their trust in someone. The fact that they haven't come forward and claimed to you speaks tons about the way you've gone about trying to earn that trust though. Mind you - I was hoping that our "protector" would actually turn out to be a jailkeeper in disguise, who'd stopped Ruben from killing without actually knowing it... But there has been no verification whether that was the case, so there's absolutely no way to know about that. In general, your first sentence really sums up the fallacious nature of your argument. That a protector "probably" doesn't exist should be wishful thinking on behalf of the scum, not something a "Royalie" should be saying. You know the protector exists, you know I'm in contact with them, and by now you've probably figured out the entire connection since it's really not steamship science. And... if it smells like herring (regardless of its colour), then we're probably losing altitude. Someone steady that ship!

To be clear, you're suggesting either the person claiming they're protector is scum or I'm scum. Great logic, and conveniently enough you've also chosen to omit a few other possibilities that are much more obvious. Which actually has also been the case with a few other of my shipmates here - and I find that highly intriguing. And more importantly. Even if I gave you the identity of the protector, what would you do with it? In what way would that help you? You cannot ensure that a member of the Royal Family gets protected and you only want protection for yourself, as stated on numerous occasions throughout Day 2. I find that highly selfish and I'm not sure it puts the interests of our remaining two Royals before your personal ones. So, in a nutshell - what good would speaking directly to the protector bring, if you can't even point him/her in the right direction?

Well, this day has been great so far. People have hardly spoken out in the Day thread, and everyone has pretty much stated the obvious. Behind the scenes, people are trying hard to get all the info they can, but I'm no more sure as to what's the real motive behind their actions than I was yesterday. And so, after most of the morning has gone by, we still haven't actually discussed anything of value. Well, let me get the ball rolling then since there seem to be people around here who doubt my affiliation and/or think I'm being taken for a ride. By all means, please go ahead, push and prod me, question me, try me in order to see where my loyalties lie. After all, that's what I did to Bess, and to some extent I'm still not sure whether I was right to question her loyalty as vehemently as I did. Either way though, I think I'll repeat myself (refer to Day 1) by saying this -- if there's something you find suspicious, please do act on it in public. That's the best way we can get more people to actually speak out and get ourselves more information to base our future moves on. As to myself - I've spent most of the day trying hard to find out whom I can really trust. In the meantime though, I've also replayed the scenes from the last couple of days, this morning included, in my mind and I was wondering, for example, what has led to some sudden short-lived colour changes in the apparel of one of our shipmates!? Sounds like nothing, I know, but I was still curious whether anyone else had noticed this...

Shanalon and her red toupé were right, after all! No daytime kill, but we did get one of the Assassins! On my part, I must say I'm sorry for finding Shan's results hard to fully trust. The whole concept of the way investigations were presented to her seemed very messed up, but it seems that it's actually my head that was more messed up in this instance. I wish I could have been more useful to the Royal Family last night though... Her majesty's sad death is a very high price to pay for weeding out a scumster.

Under these circumstances, I really can do little other than to Vote: Ruben Castleton (Rick) I sincerely hope we're not making a wrong move here; which is why I've been considering whether or not to vote all day long. Having seen how Ruben has done his best to valiantly defend himself and to underline that the protection of the Royal Family comes first, I'm still not 100% convinced that we'll be lucky tonight. However, that could very well have been an Assassin saying things that he knows are true anyway... If Shanalon has indeed supplied us true information, then I think tomorrow will be a very different day.

True, I was just supplying more information, as requested. I also don't believe that these two should be connected. As to whether you trust me or not - fair point, but unfortunately at this point in time I have nothing to help you with that. I do believe I saw a spare pair of pants somewhere on the deck though, so that might help with the draft? The way I see things, the earlier we have the above information, the more we can make of it tomorrow. As to tonight's lynch - Ruben is basing his defence on the premise of heavens having mixed up information sources / alter egos, which I'm not really inclined to believe for the time being. In any case, I hope we'll learn more before the end of the day.

Well, I said I'll be standing in the sidelines combing my eyebrows and that's pretty much what I've been doing for most of the day now. However, there have been some developments I believe you all should be aware of, especially considering Shanalon's plea from earlier today. I have been able to confirm that there has been a protector involved last night. Of course, I use the term "confirm" only in so far as such a thing is possible this early in our voyage... More interestingly though, said protector claims to have targeted Ruben last night. I prefer to put this out in the open, even though that might mean I could lose the protector's trust, despite the fact I have tried to persuade them that this is the best course of action. I do hope the protector will understand that under these circumstances, all of us do collectively need to have as much information available as possible in order to reach the right decision. As has been suggested yesterday, I'm basing my actions on my "hunch"; this time though I have to admit this is entirely the case - I have had no opportunity to confirm the claimed protector's true allegiance or role. Before anyone asks - I was contacted by the protector earlier today, before Shanalon had the opportunity to make her revelations. Which does not automatically make any claim true, and does not mean they couldn't actually both be Assassins who've drawn up an elaborate plan to try and frame Ruben today... I know that this information may not be the best of leads, but it can still help us, especially after allegiances have been revealed tonight.

Yep. Because you're still proving that you're utterly uninterested in protecting the Royal Family. As far as I'm concerned, you've shown your true colours both in public, and in private, and me being "pushy" has had little to do with it. I'd even go as far as to say I'm not interested in your blowing cooking anymore. Erm, I'd very much like to just keep sitting here combing my eyebrows and potentially waiting for a daytime assassination to happen. That should at least provide some entertainment!

The lots and lots of stuff seems incredibly valuable, and could pretty much have been expected based on your earlier assurances that there'd be more info today. I have to ask though: what makes you so sure there'd be a daytime kill? You've divulged a lot of info so you must be 110% certain about an inevitable upcoming daytime kill by the scum... Why's that the case all of a sudden? And how come you're suddenly so paranoid, thinking the Assassins are on to you and looking to off you...?

I have to agree that given the circumstances you're right; not lynching last night means that we didn't lose a potential member or protector of the Royal Family, which can only be good. I was just expressing my disappointment that we really don't have too much to base our actions on now, unless more info on last night's contingent events (or lack thereof) starts coming in. As you said yourself, I was among those who were convinced we should have voted Bess off (not just anyone, I was focused on one person in particular), believing that a) something was quite fishy there; b) even if I had been wrong, that lynch could still have proved useful based on people's reactions to such a hard line. Once again, I'll repeat what I said yesterday - Bess did on a number of occasions defend herself by claiming that she was not a member of the Royal Family. Which is why I thought our chances with that vote were pretty good. I'd rather just sit here and work on my eyebrows today though and see if other people can lead us to more info regarding a conviction, seeing as my attempts yesterday were futile anyway.

You're most welcome! Almost as helpful as not lynching, I hope?

And that's all we have today since we didn't reach a decision on who to vote against yesterday. Frankly, I don't see how theorizing at this point would get us anywhere, so I'll go comb my eyebrows in hopes that something useful might fall off.

Well, you could always give it a shot! Depending on the extra services side dish, you might just end up giving me a good reason to unvote you, seeing as it's obviously the trendy thing to do, all of a sudden. Do I need to use the sarcasm emoticon here? In short: Yes. Because after all that's been said and done today, I don't trust Bess one single bit. And also because by tomorrow morning, we'll probably have one less loyal Royal Family member / defender. The assassins won't wait around for us to decide what to do and when to do it - so I'd much rather see where my reasoning leads me than stand around debating how oh-so-bad things would be if we got the wrong person. Besides, if I'm wrong on this, I'll have to face the consequences, which I'm obviously ready and willing to do. After all, in this ship we're floating on, it's all about being a good decoy, remember? Are you one, or are you just taking the easy way out while actually causing a lynch... I'll be putting my sleep goggles to good use now. For the sake of our Royal Family, I do hope that in the morning I will actually be proven wrong, even if that means having to hear for the umpteenth time how keen I was to place a vote and "divert attention" right after Fairon cast his doubts.