Episode 5: Shattered Dreams, Scattered Themes

[Jason]

So... I survived the surefire way to catch me as a Spy. Jenya could've had me copy two protects and I'd have not been able to do it and would've been found out...

What GENIUS method did I employ to get out of the situation? This:

PM from Jenya:

Hey guys,

As a result of all the leaking of my role that's been going on lately (Rey leaked to yet another person, making three leaks total now), I think I'm going to have to protect myself at each of the next two episodes. I'm trying to make the leak people (Kirsten and the others) think I'm scared so they'll try to imprison me, and maybe we'll get lucky and get a complete save and no nightkill.

Fortunately, my power's been doubled, so I can double protect for a few more imprisonments. If you have any suggestions about who else should be protected, let me know.

My response:

You're still going to technically protect two other people and have me deflect onto you and someone else, right?? I want my 100%!

And I was never asked.

.....So what genius technique did I employ? I didn't! I just sat back and my awesomeness exuded into the minds and hearts of all and everything worked out!

In all seriousness, though, things are great now, I'm free!! Where do I go from here? Well, here's my idea...

Jenya needs to be imprisoned soon. The finger can be pointed at people who leaked her role or had her role leaked to them. Here's how I see the rest of the game:

Four Spies = Amelia, Iris, Jason, Pete

Seventeen Citizens = Levi, Jenya, Mirela, Oswald, Rey, Faith, georgia, Ellis, Kirsten, Thor, Roxy, Boris, Ariel, William, Khaled, Tiberius, Gretchen

This Exile we get a Cit. We Imprison a Cit.

4 - 15.

We exile a Cit. We imprison Jenya.

4 - 13.

NOW we have clear targets. Rey, Thor, Ellis (Kirsten will hopefully be one of the ones Exiled beforehand).

Exile Rey. Imprison Cit.

4 - 11.

Exile Thor, Imprison Cit.

4 - 9.

Exile Ellis. Imprison Cit.

4 - 7.

Boom. If we can manage to get rid of Kirsten and someone else at the next two Exiles we'll be in a spot where we can easily win the game.
Even if Amelia goes within the next two rounds which is admittedly likely, 3-8 is not bad. ESPECIALLY if the people left are William, Gretchen, Boris, Roxy, Faith, Levi, etc. people who either aren't around much, aren't on at the same time as others, or can easily be bandwagoned upon.

Plans plans, future, future. Always in motion the future is. Yoda's wisdom shall assist me in my quest for Spying glory!

[Jason]

Okay, so I've definitely slacked on Confessionals and for that I apologize! My band is hitting things full force now and unfortunately that's going to take up a lot of time from here on out, but I'm going to persevere and win this game because that's my duty ; D

Anyway, some REALLY interesting things happened this episode...



William has a role. Oh, cool, now we know yet ANOTHER role to abuse, use, and dispose of as we please.
OH WAIT HIS ROLE COULD SCREW ME OVER AND GET ME CAUGHT, SHIT FUCK SHIT!

Iris has a role. Wait, no she doesn't; she's a spy, duh!

Jason has to confirm himself this round... This could be scary.

So here's the deal with my confirmation:

Jenya protects Oswald and Gretchen. I Deflect to Jenya and myself (in theory - I of course can't do this because I didn't get a powerup). Khaled watches Oswald and Roxy.

So in theory I should be fine. I deflect from Oswald to Jenya so Khaled's watch picks up what I'm supposed to do and confirms both of us. The interesting and SCARY thing is I'm not sure how Jenya thinks this confirms me because clearly I can use one Deflection and get away with it.

What I'm scared will happen is Jenya will go back and tell Khaled to watch Oswald and Gretchen instead, and then he'll get the deflection from Oswald to Jenya but not the one from Gretchen to myself... and I'll be caught.

And I'm hoping that this Burg and PM lockdown might have prevented that from happening... I really really hope... As long as things go my way and I get lucky everything will be great (things usually are great when you get lucky, after all). If not.... Bad things happen, I cry, and might go emo IRL too!


So... here's a rundown on my fellow Spies:


Pete - Great player. He's going to make it far in the game because he's smart and has good sense. I can work with him 100% and feel confident.
I don't have any issues with his gameplay or style, but I do think he needs to lurk a little bit less just because it has the potential to make him a suspect later in the game. If he's the lone remaining spy and suddenly becomes way more active people might notice that something's up.

Iris - Smart person and not a bad player, but dangerous. She doesn't think everything through all the way or double check. Like claiming her role allowed her to see one post from someone's confessional after Sam posted that NOBODY would EVER see ANY part of a confessional until after the game. That's why it's good to ask What Would Sam Do? in the Spy HQ with all role ideas before implementing them. That might wind up killing her.
I'm glad she did claim the role, though. It saved her for at least a round if not more, got rid of a Citizen this round instead of a Spy, and set things into motion that might help us exile a string of Citizens in a row.

Amelia - I think Amelia has potential to be a great Spy but she needs to get on board with the rest of us. When told that William has a role that could endanger us and that it would be helpful for us if she hopped on board his Exile train and gave it more support, Amelia responded by... publicly posting that she was voting for Faith.
I don't understand that at all -_- And then she votes to Imprison William? Really? William gets Imprisoned mere days after I find out that he has a role that could potentially investigate me and uncover me as a Spy? No, that won't make me look suspicious to Jenya or Khaled at all....

I don't want to bus Amelia and I probably won't, especially now that she's proven she can play with the team by confirming Iris' gift to her. But I won't be risking my own cover for her, that's for sure. As for Iris and Pete, I'm willing to stick my neck out for them (Pete more so than Iris because if the situations) because I think they've been great teammates so far.


Anyway, an Episode Wrap Up is in order!

[Jason]

The Creation and Legacy of Jason: Learning to Spy By Not Spying
Episode Three



"If you are to succeed in this game, Jason, you must learn to first understand how those around you will both think and operate."

Bruce. He was a smart guy - always on top of everything, always concerned with feelings. Ultimately, though, it was his feelings that sealed his fate.

You mean think like a citizen?

"Precisely. If you think as a citizen you will know how most of the Citizens will behave. Understanding and being able to predict behavior will be vital in your quest to become the greatest Spy ever. Did Napoleon understand the Seventh Coalition? Did Cornwallis understand Lafayette and Washington? You must learn from others' mistakes lest you repeat them yourself."

But how can I think like a citizen when I'm actually a Spy? How do I know?

"I don't know... How do you think like a Citizen when you're a Spy?"

You mean you don't know how to, either?

"You tell me."

How should I know? You're the one that knows what's in your brain, not me.

"And that's what we're here to change."

Errr.... Okay? I think you do know how, then.

"And how did you reach that conclusion?"

You wouldn't be teaching it to me if you didn't.

"Or maybe I would. Perhaps I'm using you to discover it for myself?"

So I still don't know or understand...

"That's right. And now you understand."

You just said that it's right that I don't understand... And that makes me understand? How?

"Admitting your lack of understanding is the first step towards true understanding. You have to accept that you will never fully understand the motives, actions, or ideas of anyone. And by entering into relationships and conversations with people with that knowledge in place you will quickly be able to discern between that which you do understand and that which you do not. Do you follow, Jason?"

I... think so. I have to distinguish between actual knowledge from experience and speculation?

"Exactly. You must put yourself in the shoes of your adversary and see of their actions correspond with your own. If they do then you almost certainly will be able to predict what they shall o next. If they don't, then you must be prepared for the unexpected."

So really I'm just hoping that people will act like I do?

"Ah, in the rudimentary sense, yes. Ideally you would also want to cross check this with analysis of a dozen or so different perspectives and analyze the differential factor combined with the probability of being affected by a role and so on and so forth."

Errr...

"You of course do not have have to worry about such a trivial addendum to the primary train of thought. For you the goal is simple: Think as the Citizens do in order to be prepared for the actions that will naturally follow the aforementioned thoughts. If you can do this successfully you will become a mighty and fearsome predator of the night."


From this day forward I thought of myself not as a Spy, but as a citizen. Sure, I knew who the other Spies were, but I will still uncertain about everyone else. Perhaps they were unknown Spies! I never considered myself a Spy again, thanks to the knowledge and wisdom of Bruce.

"Oh, and by the way... If you encounter Arthur, please kill him for me. He'll be using the alias Ed."



-_______-




Edit: I accidentally put the entire Spies 3 cast picture instead of just Bruce's

[Jason]

Yeah it's Episode 7 not 5 but I meant to post this and never actually did so:


How to: Make people tell you what you want to know without realizing it.

First, talk to them. Get them to feel good about you. And then they do this:

spies6Tiberius (6:15:21 PM): but i will show you
spies6Tiberius (6:15:28 PM): the slightly disconcerting PM i received
spies6Tiberius (6:15:30 PM): Ok look, in case I get exlied for being inactive or whatevere here's the info anyways.

I have a role that allows me to, depending on whether certain things happen, investigate a player to see if they have a citizen role. That means I will find out that either they are a citizen with a role, or they are one of (spy, spy with role, citizen without role, god knows what else). Since there was a lot of Levi stuff last episode, I used it at night since I earn an investigation. What I got was "Rey does not have a citizen role." I asked Sam if he screwed up and all he said was "Intriguing."

So WTF right? My guess is A) Levi has a deflection role that bounces investigations/night actions off of him or B)Levi and Rey are somehow connected?

I much more buy A but I don't know if that makes him more or less supicious. Also, if I am to trust the Rey result, that he has no citizen power, how did he get immune in exile 3? It was either not his own power and he has powerful friend in spy or cit, or he' a spy and protected himself. But I can't find anything else out!

So there. If you're a spy I'm screwed but I'm hoping you are't. And that you'll be online in the next 4 hours!
spies6Tiberius (6:16:05 PM): Things I have learned since then are that this person got a investigation because an inactive was removed, which is one of the parameters
sPIEs6Jason (6:16:43 PM): Oooh, this is very interesting...
sPIEs6Jason (6:16:50 PM): When was this message sent??
sPIEs6Jason (6:17:12 PM): if it was not this last Episode but the Episode before I think I knw what happened
spies6Tiberius (6:17:14 PM): before mirela was immunized

Oh wow, cool, I just got information for free! Ordinarily this would be great by itself, but wait...

spies6Tiberius (6:20:46 PM): it seems
spies6Tiberius (6:20:53 PM): VERY unlikely that a citizen would have that power
spies6Tiberius (6:21:04 PM): yet this person's story seems so very flimsy to me...
spies6Tiberius (6:21:08 PM): i dunnoooooo
spies6Tiberius (6:21:10 PM): well
spies6Tiberius (6:21:13 PM): ugh 'm conflicted
sPIEs6Jason (6:21:28 PM): Well, maybe it was to balance out the Jailor role? IDK it could go either way I guess
sPIEs6Jason (6:21:34 PM): So think they might be making it up?

Uhoh, Tiberius thinks this deflection role is a Spy role. HEY! Wait a minute... I'm a Spy and I have a Deflection role!!11 Don't panic, be noncommittal. It's okay, you'll live.

spies6Tiberius (6:22:16 PM): it'd be the type of role that's somewhat easy to make up, and inactive removal seems such a random paremeter
spies6Tiberius (6:22:25 PM): though the deflection thing
spies6Tiberius (6:22:38 PM): seems a bit more creative than i'd expect of this person XD
sPIEs6Jason (6:23:00 PM): LOL it must be William! j/k hmm, that would be a pretty creative thing... I doubt they're making that up
sPIEs6Jason (6:23:35 PM): So they could be a Citizen confused about an apparent Deflection, or a Spy trying to set Levi up

See what I did there? I threw out a name attached to the role to see if he would accidentally agree with me...

spies6Tiberius (6:23:55 PM): yes
spies6Tiberius (6:23:58 PM): one or the other
spies6Tiberius (6:24:06 PM): but also
spies6Tiberius (6:24:10 PM): he seems to try to put it on rey
spies6Tiberius (6:24:11 PM): but
spies6Tiberius (6:24:16 PM): it was before the mirela immunity
spies6Tiberius (6:24:23 PM): so he was probably just confused...

OOPS! It looks like he DID agree with me! But I can't be 100% positive given the specific circumstance... It's time to let some time pass...

spies6Tiberius (6:37:23 PM): i
spies6Tiberius (6:37:38 PM): am trying to decide whether to talk to jenya about this since it tangently involves her role
sPIEs6Jason (6:37:55 PM): Lol it probably couldn't hurt
sPIEs6Jason (6:38:23 PM): She can probably help get to the bottom of things

Uhoh, he wants to talk to Jenya at 6:37 PM...

sPIEs6Jason (6:38:11 PM): BTW I just got an interesting PM from Tiberius... and IM convo
spies6Jenya (6:38:22 PM): Oh?
sPIEs6Jason (6:38:33 PM): Yeah I told him he should talk to you about it

And at 6:38 I tell JENYA to talk to HIM. Now she thinks it's my idea : )

spies6Tiberius (6:41:28 PM): alright
sPIEs6Jason (6:41:37 PM): I told her she might wanna talk with you some time lol

...And so does he! (I really love Spying)
So anyway, now her's fishing to see how badly I WANT to know...

spies6Tiberius (7:41:54 PM): i will do the same thing i did to jenya
spies6Tiberius (7:41:58 PM): objectivly
spies6Tiberius (7:42:05 PM): if you were in my position
spies6Tiberius (7:42:08 PM): would you tell you
spies6Tiberius (7:42:13 PM): who the person is?
sPIEs6Jason (7:42:23 PM): Honestly... not yet -_-
sPIEs6Jason (7:42:42 PM): Unless you thought that you were in trouble, but we still have an exile before the next Imprisonment anyway
sPIEs6Jason (7:42:56 PM): But I want to know ugh, but I can't lie -_-

Oh man, every instinct says, "You NEED to know who has this role because it's a threat to you. He's offering to tell you! Accept! Accept!". But I didn't, because that's evidence I can use to defend myself later in the game. And it makes me look better which will make Tibby lower his guard more which means there's a better probability of him slipping.

spies6Tiberius (7:57:00 PM): scan the leave eye spy? thread
sPIEs6Jason (7:57:36 PM): Yes indeed... its probably got a post by whoever it is
spies6Tiberius (7:58:06 PM): ah
spies6Tiberius (7:58:07 PM): yeah
spies6Tiberius (7:58:13 PM): forgot you didn't know for a sec XD
sPIEs6Jason (7:58:16 PM): Haha!

Now it's confirmed that in Tiberius' mind I know who has the role because I mentioned his name in reference to the role in a total but educated guess.

spies6Tiberius (8:04:51 PM): si
sPIEs6Jason (8:05:06 PM): Hmmm
sPIEs6Jason (8:05:20 PM): So that takes the creative edge out a little bit, if it was in a game already
sPIEs6Jason (8:05:29 PM): but it still sounds legit
spies6Tiberius (8:05:33 PM): the DEFLECTION

See the key word there? CREATIVE. AKA the word that Tiberius used right before I threw the name William out there. Now I throw it out there and see if he accidentally throws the name back at me...

spies6Tiberius (8:05:36 PM): was in the last game
spies6Tiberius (8:05:44 PM): meaning whatever levi seems to have
spies6Tiberius (8:05:45 PM): but yeah
spies6Tiberius (8:05:52 PM): william could have stole that idea from the last game
sPIEs6Jason (8:08:32 PM): Ok, so yeah, the role itself is a m\ystery, and you totally just told me -_-
spies6Tiberius (8:09:24 PM): o ballsack
spies6Tiberius (8:09:26 PM): like i said
spies6Tiberius (8:09:33 PM): i kept forgeting you didnt know
sPIEs6Jason (8:09:48 PM): LOL its ok... I'm not going to tell anyone, I'm paranoid about secrets -_-
spies6Tiberius (8:09:58 PM): well i was going to tell you until you told me not to XD
spies6Tiberius (8:10:02 PM): to be fair
spies6Tiberius (8:10:10 PM): anyway, yeah, there it is, it'
spies6Tiberius (8:10:13 PM): it's william
sPIEs6Jason (8:10:16 PM): Really? I should have said "OH YEAH I DEFINITELY WOULD TELL MYSELF"
spies6Tiberius (8:10:24 PM): lol
spies6Tiberius (8:10:25 PM): no
spies6Tiberius (8:10:31 PM): you telling me not to was awesome

Uber pwnage. And THAT is how you get someone to tell you what you want to know while making yourself look amazing for not pressuring to know. "You telling me not to (tell you) was awesome" he says. Of course it was, because I already planned to know by the end of the day!.

[Kirsten]

I'm surprised that even after we exiled Donald I was still someone you thought would be exiled in the next 1-2 exiles.

[Jason]

Wishful thinking ; D


Edit: AND DON'T FORGET THAT GETTING DONALD WAS THE MOST SUSPICIOUS THING DONE ALL GAME, DAMN IT!

[Kirsten]

Aug 18, 2009 15:47:15 GMT -5 Jason said:

Edit: AND DON'T FORGET THAT GETTING DONALD WAS THE MOST SUSPICIOUS THING DONE ALL GAME, DAMN IT!

Too true .

[DC]

Uber pwnage indeed. Trey, you're so good it's scary.

[Jason]

Aug 19, 2009 14:41:05 GMT -5 DC said:

Uber pwnage indeed. Trey, you're so good it's scary.

That's what all the ladies tell me in bed!