I always put myself in destructive situations [W5, Friday]

[hydrokinetics]

[It took time. Everything took time as it always did. It took time for them to all calm down, it took time to heal physical wounds, it took time to properly remove the evidence of obscene crimes...but in the evening they were able to gather in one place away from everyone else. It hadn't been easy coordinating everything, but it was necessary.

And so here they were. All seven of them.]

...I don't really know where to start. [His voice is tight, but determined.] But we need everybody on the same page. Who wants to go first?

Comments

[insincerely]

Since we're suspecting Xion...

[He hates this. He's not surprised, because he's dealt with this kind of thing too many times for that, but... he still hates it.]

She and I recently discussed roles—on Thursday, to be specific. Obviously, I didn't tell her anything, beyond saying that I knew the names of a few. It might've looked suspicious if I said I knew nothing... even though that would've been the truth, if the rest of the Bounties hadn't found me.

[Yeah, he's been a shitty detective.]

She told me that she's heard of the Doctor and Bartender but doesn't know who they are or what they do. She's also heard about the Madame and Deputy.

[maybe more to be continued but THERE IS A CONTRADICTION HERE!!]

[robitussin]

[God.]

...She knew by Wednesday. About me, I mean. But, it's not hard to imagine her not telling you because she didn't want to spread it around when I told her in confidence.

[insincerely]

Maybe. But... she was also talking about how we weren't getting anywhere because no one was trusting each other enough to tell them anything.

And before she started talking about roles, she made me promise that when I said I didn't have one, I was telling the truth—she said it was important. [...] I can't judge her, since I was obviously lying, but that suggests to me that she was ready to tell me everything she knew.

She also could've just told me that she knew their identity but couldn't tell me, rather than straight up lying.

[robitussin]

If you had to guess what her reasoning for it was, then, what would you say?

[insincerely]

... I'm not 100% sure. My guess would be that she's doing the same thing I was doing: testing people to see how much they knew.

It doesn't necessarily means she's up to anything—she could just be trying to gather info just in case. On the other hand, there's nothing that says she can't be up to something.

[impulsiveness]

[RAISES?? AN EYEBROW?? And give Natalie a Look.]

No, she definitely knows who the Doctor is. Natalie and I [uh] spoke to her on Wednesday.
She's known since then.

[thatsthespirit]

Is it really surprising she'd lie about knowing Natalie's role? Perhaps she was trying to protect her.

Yuna and I trusted each other with all of our being, but we only revealed our roles to each other a few days ago.

[it took them FIVE WEEKS to talk about it geez]

[impulsiveness]

Maybe not. But if it were me, I wouldn't outright lie about not knowing diddly-squat about a role.
But assuming she did it to protect Natalie: She had no reason to lie about not knowing what the Doctor DOES. That's not incriminating information.

[thatsthespirit]

But Xion isn't you, and there's a chance she wanted to maintain plausible deniability. Thus why she didn't say anything about how the Doctor role worked.

Her strategy at keeping her head down and fishing for information from people may be different from ours.

[insincerely]

... Damn it.

[Ugggggh.]

[robitussin]

[She is returning that look, but...]

Milla might be right. It could have just been to protect me.

[Please don't worry about her any more than you already are??]

[hydrokinetics]

But then why also lie about not knowing what the role did?

[insincerely]

For the record, she brought up not knowing the details of the role on her own initiative.

If I recall correctly, I just mentioned that I'd heard about those roles, and she pretty much went, "Me too, but oh, I don't know anything about them!"

... Xion could just be stupid, but if I were in her shoes and just trying to protect Natalie, I wouldn't have admitted to even knowing about the role to begin with.

[thatsthespirit]

[she doesn't know about any contradictions, and as much as she also hates this, she's shut off her personal feelings in order to have this conversation]

Can we confirm where Xion got this information? Was it from anyone here?

[hydrokinetics]

[He's just. Scrubbing his hands over his face.]

...me. I'm pretty sure. I talked to her on Wednesday because she wanted to talk to me about Damian. She said that he told her that he was the Bounty Leader and that she could trust me. I didn't realize she was only talking about the Bounty, so I told her the names of the other roles. Once I realized she was oblivious, I didn't say anything else.

[thatsthespirit]

[uuuuuUUUUUUUUH]

So she knows about Damian.

[her gaze narrows]

Do you know when she learned about him? Because he's still alive, so perhaps that means something.

[something like XION IS NOT THE DEPUTY???]

[impulsiveness]

Okay. Unrelated question time: Does the idiot HAVE to reveal himself to one person every week?
Because if so, that's fucking stupid.

[STOP REVEALING YOURSELF, DAMIAN WAYNE?]

[insincerely]

[CONTINUATION OF: XION IS A LIAR, OOPS.]

... She also told me that she knows about a "leader", though not of what, and that killing them will end the game. Apparently, she's been trying to figure out their identity all week, but to no avail.

[and possibly more fishy details, but again to be cont.]

[thatsthespirit]

[UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM]

Is this the Bandit Leader she brought up before? I thought she was confusing it for the Bounty Leader. . .

[AND SHE. KNOWS ABOUT DAMIAN? SO UUUUUUM]

Do you think it's possible the Deputy has been told that killing the Bounty Leader will end the game?

[elemancy]

Don't see why they wouldn't. They're basically at odds with the Bounty Leader.

[insincerely]

Yeah. I was misleading her by talking about how the Deputy might be the Bandit leader she brought up before, given how we got on the subject... She then said that there is no Bandit leader, but she knows there's a leader.

... I wouldn't be surprised.

[impulsiveness]

[....................... ah.]

I wouldn't put it past this game. If it's funny and causes us grief, it's likely.

[robitussin]

[uuuUUUHHHH]

A leader? You don't think she means...

[insincerely]

... Yeah. I'm pretty sure she means the Bounty Leader.

[impulsiveness]

[GLANCING..... OVER TO WHEREVER DAMIAN IS. HE TOTALLY THINKS SHE MEANS...........]