Mafia II

[Rusvul]

Mafia! Fun! I will play! Because Mafia is fun!

[Jasper]

I would like to join, if it's still open. 

[Rainshadow]

  Aaand that's it!  Signups are closed, and I shall soon be distributing the roles to each of you players.  There will be TWO Mafia, ONE Medic, ONE Detective, ONE Cupid, and FIVE Civilians.

  ROUND ONE (NIGHT) HAS OFFICIALLY STARTED.  You will have 72 hours to send your PMs to me (I'll be giving the details of your role in your PM, so don't worry about not knowing what to do), but please don't wait until the last minute to PM me.  I'll be trying to fit the writing of each assassination and lynching into the 72 hours of night and day, so I would be very grateful if you could all PM me quickly so I can start writing sooner than later.

  The PMs will be sent out posthaste!

[Rainshadow]

  As the PMs were sent in within a few hours of me sending out the roles, and I finished writing the first assassination rather quickly, I figured I'd post it right now.

  The brilliant orange tones of the sunset streamed through the trees and onto a group of travelers who were hiking through the woods, many chatting loudly and giggling.

  "I can't believe we're actually doing this!" Cornflower exclaimed for the umpteenth time, a huge grin plastered across her face as she bounced up and down.  "I can't believe we're finally all together!"

  Soren smiled at the prancing girl he was walking behind, hiking his backpack a bit higher on his back as he said, "Yeah, this is pretty awesome.  A real-life forum event, I mean."

  "Yeah," Sagetip agreed as he stepped in yet another mud puddle, splashing brown goo on his shorts, "but did it have to be here, of all places?  We couldn't have picked a better spot to meet, like an amusement park or something?"

  "We could go to an amusement park next time," Jasper said, carefully avoiding the puddle Sage had just bathed in.  "Maybe we could drag a few more members along then.  It'd be pretty cool to see some others, like Faiy, Skarzs, or Blue."

  "What about Rain?" Jet asked.  "She might be pretty cool to meet."

  Rusvul snorted.  "You kidding?  It'd be chaos if she showed up."

  Everyone chuckled at this comment, for it was very true.

  Jasper suddenly yelped from behind Skyblade.  The other members turned to see him fall over, his face slamming into the very mud puddle that Sage had stepped in.  Mud splashed up, dousing the back of his head and shoulders in chunky brown liquid.

  Skye rushed to his side to see what had happened, asking in a worried voice, "Are you okay?"

  A mud-caked face rose from the puddle, looking extremely unhappy.  He nodded and sat up on his knees, reaching toward his shoe to unhook the laces from a branch they had been snagged on.

  Rrrrr sniggered, but quickly covered it with an unconvincing coughing fit when Eulalia elbowed him in the arm.

  "Here," Gonff said, pulling a red handkerchief out of his pocket offering it to the muddy member.

  Jasper accepted it, nodding his thanks before wiping his mouth off so he could speak.  "You guys go on ahead; I'll just stay back a moment to clean my face off."

  "Mmkay," Corn said, turning around and taking the lead once more as she walked in the direction of where they'd be setting up camp that evening.  "Just don't get too far behind!"  The other members followed behind her, Rrrrr muttering an apology as he passed by.

  As the group walked on, Jasper took out his canteen and poured a bit of water onto his handkerchief, immediately beginning to rub it on his face to rid himself of the filth.  Little did he know that one member had broken apart from the group and was headed back his way.

  His face buried in the red cloth, Jasper barely noticed a twig snap a little ways in front of him.  He lowered the kerchief, his eyes resting on a familiar face.  "Oh, hey, what're you doing back here?  I thought you were going ahead with the othe-"

  His words were cut short by a bolt to the chest, shot by a one-handed crossbow held in the other member's hand.  Jasper let out a cry of pain, his mouth gaping, and he glanced from his attacker to the bolt, then back to the attacker, a look of betrayal on his face.  He then dropped to his knees, gasping, "Why?"

  His would-be friend walked closer, their face becoming blurrier with each step.  The only trait Jasper could discern now was a cruel grin.  "Don't worry," they said, placing a note in Jasper's hand and holding it closed, "you won't be lonely for long.  Your friends will join you soon."  Then, patting Jasper on the head, they turned around and started walking back toward the main group, saying over their shoulder, "I really should be getting back.  They'll miss me if I'm gone for too long.  More than they'll miss you, I'm sure."

  Jasper barely registered those words.  Finding it hard to hold himself up with each passing second, he fell backwards, his mouth still open and his eyes wide.  He stared up at the sky, his vision beginning to dim.  It was sunset.  The sky was blood red.  Blood red sky...  Blood red...

  Then everything went black.

  *  *  *

  Meanwhile, no one noticed as one of the members, one who had previously been "checking up" on Jasper, snuck their way into the group.  No, no one had noticed anything out of the ordinary until some members started wondering what had happened to Jasper.

  "Uh, guys?" Rus, who was walking near the back of the group, called ahead.  "Um, has anyone seen Jasper?  He should've been back by now."

  "Yeah," Skye said, a worried expression starting to form on her face.  "Maybe someone should go check on him?  I mean, he hasn't caught up to us yet.  I can't even see him behind us anymore."

  "That's true," Eulalia agreed, nodding as she turned to look down the path behind them.  "Maybe we should all go back."

  "Sounds good to me," Soren said, already starting to turn around.  The others followed his lead, heading back the way they came in a worried hush.  What had happened to Jasper?  He said he would only be a minute, and yet they had been walking for five!

  Suddenly, Corn, who was once again in the lead, let out a loud scream.  The others rushed forward to see what had startled her, and many also let out alarmed cries and horrified gasps.  Lying on the ground in front of them was the prone form of Jasper, a crossbow bolt protruding from his chest.  His eyes reflected the dying light of day: a startlingly red colour.

  "What...?  Who...?"  Skye stared at the body in horror, her own body frozen in place by shock.

  "WHO DID THIS?" Sage screamed, pointing at Jasper as tears formed in his eyes.  "WHO KILLED HIM?"

  Rrrrr shook his head, unable to look away from the dead member in front of him.

  Finally, Eulalia stepped forward, kneeling down by Jasper's clasped hand.  "He's holding something," she said, her voice faltering a bit as she took a torn slip of notebook paper from his hand.  She then uncrumpled it and read it over, once, twice, three times, each time looking more confused than the previous.

  "Well?" Soren asked.  "What does it say?"

  Her voice still trembling, Eulalia proceeded to read the neat writing on the paper in her hands.

  "Long Live the Mods."

  Gonff's mouth opened and closed several times as he attempted to process this information.  "Long... long live the mods?  What does that mean?"

  "I told you," Rus exclaimed, "the mods mean trouble!"

  "When?" Corn asked, sniffing and wiping her eyes.

  "When Jet suggested letting Rain come along.  I said it'd be chaotic if she came -- if any mod came -- and now look at what's happened!  There are mod worshipers in these woods, and they're after us!"

  "B-but you said it like a joke!" Corn replied, her voice rising in pitch.

  "I was still right, wasn't I?"

  "Wait," Jet said, holding up his hand, "there aren't any other people in the woods.  I mean, wouldn't we have noticed it if there were?"

  Soren looked at Jet, realization starting to wash over him.  "W-what are you getting at, Jet?"

  "Someone standing in our group is a mod worshiper," the teen said, looking from one member to the next with suspicion in his gaze.  "Maybe more than one person."

  "We have to do something, then!" Rrrrr suddenly exclaimed, startling the members who were standing nearest to him.  "We... we have to root out the mod worshipers, whoever they may be, and... and..."

  "Kill them," Jet said grimly, nodding.  "If they're left alive, they'll just inflict more terror on us and on others.  They have to go."

  Soren sighed and nodded sadly.  "I hate to say it, but Jet's right.  If they're not dead, the worshiper or worshipers will continue to try and kill us.  It's kill or be killed, now.  But first, we should probably bury Jasper."

  "Yeah..." Corn said softly.  "That'd be the proper thing to do, I think."

  *  *  *

  About an hour later, after the light had faded from the world, the remaining members gathered around the grave of Jasper, staring at one another.  Soren and Sage were holding torches that made the shadows dance around the edges of the group.

  "Well," Rrrrr said, breaking the somber silence, "who do you think we should... y'know..."

  "Kill?" Soren finished for him.

  Corn let out a small hiccup of a sob; Skye reached over and patted her shoulder, trying to comfort her.

  "Yeah."

  "What other way can we do it?" Sage asked.  "We'll have to take a vote."

  And so, once Soren had taken off his baseball cap, Eulalia had finished ripping pages out of her diary to use as slips of paper, and Corn had gathered a few pens and pencils from the other members, they passed out the materials and began discussing who they should kill.

  ROUND ONE (NIGHT) HAS ENDED WITH JASPER DEAD.  ROUND ONE (DAY) HAS BEGUN.

  You will have 72 hours to post in this thread who you wish to lynch.  Please put your final choice in bold so that it's easier to pick out from the rest of the post.

[Skyblade]

Well written

I honestly am not good at this game; I joined for enjoyment. Are you putting clues in your stories pointing to who the Mafia are?

[Rainshadow]

  Thanks!  This is actually my first time hosting a game, so I'm surprised I was able to write all this without giving anything away.  (At least, I hope I didn't give anything away.  )

  Oh, yeah, whenever I play Mafia, I'm mostly just making biased guesses.  I have no real strategy when I play this game; I just enjoy seeing how other people portray me and all the different ways of dying people come up with.    And no, I'm trying my hardest to not give away the roles of any of the players.  It's kinda hard; I had about three pages written for this night session, then when I finished and was about ready to post it, I went, "Wait, I include one player so much in this that it's impossible to not believe that they're innocent.  Better rewrite this..."  And I had to erase two of the three pages.    Of course, in rewriting it, I added two additional pages, making it five total, but whatever.  It still was a bit of a bummer that I wasted about an hour.  I must admit, though, this version is much better than the one I scrapped.  It includes all of the players more often, and also includes the bit about them all finding Jasper and the note.

  Okay, rambling over.  Now, discuss amongst yourselves as to who you'd like to lynch.  Also, if anyone has any suggestions as to how you'd like the lynched member to be killed, feel free to state them.  I'd be happy to kill them in a way that's pleasing to all of you. 

[Søren]

That was...cool, but also...sorta disturbing. Which means it was written well enough to put yourself in that situation.

Ok, I've no idea who, but something tells me rrrr could be it. I'm not sure though.

[Skyblade]

Hmm...well, it's usually the ones you don't expect

[Jasper]

*Waits two months to play and is killed off in the first round without ever actually playing.  *

I do have some ideas of who the mafia are, but I'm going to assume the dead cannot speak... 

[Eulaliaaa!]

I'm thinking it's Corny. She led us away from Jasper, and she was the first to see him dead. But it could also be Rrrrr, because he laughs when Jasper falls, and apologizes (as if saying sorry for being about to kill him) as he leaves.

[Skyblade]

I don't think Rain is putting clues

BUT, I still think - go for the unexpected.

[Eulaliaaa!]

Well I'm turning those things into clues  I've never played this game before, so I don't know if it's usually unexpected or not.

[Skyblade]

Like I said, I'm not good at this game, so take my word with a pinch of salt or however the expression goes.

Rain said she's trying not to blatantly reveal who the Mafia are.

Considering this, I would come to the conclusion that the Mafia did not play a big role in the story. They were probably more in the background and didn't speak much.

[Eulaliaaa!]

Rus? He was walking near the back of the group and he was the one to point out Jasper's absence.

[Gonff the Mousethief]

I'm going to say Eul. The note was written on a piece of notebook paper, and she just so had it to hand house to everyone. Plus if she was not for the mods, than she would try to trick the others into thinking the person who did was for the mods. Hope that makes sense.