[the phantom]

I recently thought of a frightening possibility--that is both SpM and the phantom are wolves and working together.

Ha ha! Yes, that would be frightening, and I'd be delighted if we were teamed together sometime in the future.

But in this game, I assure you we are not.

Distance yourself dramatically at the start and slowly merge into the same, seems a good strategy for two very intelligent people who are well known to disagree.

Yes, that might be a good strategy, however I have not followed that strategy. I don't believe I have ever been overly hostile to SP yesterday or today, and so I have not distanced myself "dramatically" as you put it.

See how they weave this web and we all follow.

I don't really think people are following us. I am merely providing as much analysis as I possibly can and I am also trying to feel other people out and determine who I might want to follow, or at least give a long listen to.

Again it's unlikely that this is the case but I wanted to mention it.

Yes, it is unlikely, but I don't mind you mentioning it. You wouldn't be fulfilling your duty as a villager if you thought of it but didn't say anything.

I cannot speak for the phantom. But I will work with him for as long as he is putting forward sensible analysis which seems to me to be serving the village's best interests.

How sensible of you.

That said, I am still keeping a cautious eye on him.

Heh. I imagine everyone is, in the back of their minds.

It's my fault for having a suspicious screen name like "the phantom".

They could both very likely be the bear.

What? We are both the bear? If so, then I believe the mod made a mistake and assigned one too many "bear" roles.

Just kidding, I know what you meant. And to that, I will only answer that I thought the idea of me being the bear was pretty well taken care of yesterday.

aside from the Shiriffs and the Seer, nobody knows who's innocent besides themselves

It's true that nobody besides the gifted can know someone else is innocent, but it is entirely possible to be mostly sure of someone's innocence. For instance, if two villagers stepped forward and said "We are the Shirriffs", and no one challenged them, we could then be relatively confident that the two were innocent despite the fact we aren't gifted.

However, if you think you have spotted an innocent, particularly a gifted innocent, you might not want to point them out, since the wolves will then know who to try and kill.

The fact is, as "clever" as Saucy and I are, the most we can do is analyse, which is not nearly as dangerous to the wolves as what a gifted can do to them, thus the wolves will always be looking for hints about who is gifted and making their best guess at killing them.

Everyone keep that in mind as you post.