WW LXXX: It's About Time!

[Inziladun]

After dinner, everyone was again grouped around the time machine.
"I intend to get seriously cracking on this tommorow", said Professor Inzil. "Anyone have any questions before bed?"
Several hands shot up. "Yes?" he said, pointing at skip.
"I'm not sure about this", said skip. "What if we just leave?" Others nodded in agreement.
"You can't, I'm afraid".
"Why not?", replied skip heatedly, over the sound of many murmurs.
The Professor sighed. "The only way out is the door we entered through. It's on a timer, and it won't open until the time's up."
"When will that be?", demanded Wilwa.
"Only I know", replied the Professor. "Like I said, it's all for security purposes. I've had serious threats because of the way I've been so critical of the movies. There's a lot of money tied up in them, and there are those who think I'm too outspoken. And it doesn't help that I've tried before to destroy the movie industry's ability to exploit Tolkien's work."
"What did you do?", asked Lottie.
"It isn't important. But because of those past incidents, I wanted this project to be as safe and secure as possible. There are lots of safeguards. For instance, any attempt to tamper with or destroy the machine, without first performing a small action, will likely result in a tremendous explosion." He looked at the group's faces, satisfied. "What else would you like to know"?
"What does the machine use for fuel?", asked The Elf-warrior.
Professor Inzil laughed. "Oh, I'm not telling you that just yet! It's actually made from several ingredients that are fairly cheap, and easy to come by. I've got enough for what we need to do. I can make more with no problem when necessary. Anything else? Yes?" He pointed at Nerwen.
"Where did you get the money to do all this?", she asked.
"Well, ummm..."
"And how did you figure out how to build a time machine?", inquired Boro. The Professor looked nonplussed.
"There are perfectly good answers to those questions, but I'm afraid they'll have to wait for another time. Good Night! See you all in the morning!"

IT IS NOW NIGHT 1. Wolves may discuss, Seer may send me a dream-pick.

[Inziladun]

Time To Get Down To Business

It was now very late, so late that it was early.
Professor Inzil was walking around the time machine, checking various things. Every so often he made a note for himself on his micro recorder. He went behind the apparatus and picked up a 5 gallon clear plastic container resting against the wall. Written upon it in black Sharpie marker was the word "FUEL". He carried it to the machine, to a round port curiously also marked "FUEL". He removed the canister's lid and poured the contents into a round aperture in the machine. A reddish-orange liquid flowed out. He poured the entire can into it, thinking that it would be enough for what they needed. That was the entire stock of fuel, but, as he'd told everyone, it wasn't exactly difficult to compound. He closed the Fuel Port and watched as the needle above it swung over from "DEP", which meant "depleted", over to "OPT", which meant "optimal".
He set down the can and once again took out his recorder. "Note to self," he began "Make more fuel."
Before he could press the recorder's "STOP" button, he started as he heard a stealthy sound behind him.

IT IS STILL NIGHT 1

[Inziladun]

The early sun was shining brightly outside, but inside the house it might as well have been midnight. No friendly sunshine pierced the walls and windows of that secret enclave in the countyside.
The "guests" (who at the moment thought of themselves more as conscripts) were walking downstairs, quietly talking of yesterday's strange events. They had seen or heard no sign of Professor Inzil since the previous evening. Some of the party went into the kitchen to find something for breakfast. Others assumed the Professor was probably in the dining room with the time machine, and went there first. Those in the kitchen heard yells from the dining room, and quickly followed their sound. What they found in the dining room was most disturbing.

The Professor lay motionless on the floor beside the machine, with many people huddled closely around him. There was drying blood on the side of his head, and a quantity of it on the floor beside.
Shasta knelt down and checked the Professor's pulse. After a few moments, he shook his head.
"He's dead!" There were several gasps.
"What happened to him?", asked Sally.
"Look! There's more blood on the edge of that console!", exclaimed Aganzir.
"That would explain how he died", said Eomer. "But how did this happen"?
A sliding sound and a "Thump!" made them all jump. They looked down, then were relieved.
"Someone kicked the Professor's little recorder, that's all", said Fea.
The idea seemed to occur to them simultaneously that it might contain clues to what had befallen the Professor, and several hands reached for the device. Greenie came up with it, and pressed "Play". The button immediately popped back up.
"It must be at the end", said Wilwa. "Rewind it." After doing so for a few moments, Greenie pressed "Play" again.
"Note to self", said the Professor's voice. "Make more fuel". Then there was a gasp.
"Oh! You startled me! What are you three doing up? Insomnia? I understand that you're eager to get this going, but you really must get some sleep. I...hey! What are you doing? Let go!"
They heard the sounds of an apparent struggle, then a "Thud" sound, followed by a more final sliding sound which told them the Professor was then going down for the count.
Footsteps could be heard walking away, more than one set. The sound of a door opening and closing, then silence.
As the group stood there, three of their number gazed upon their work with inner satisfaction.
Three others had secret thoughts of their own.

One of them thought of the dream xe'd had last night. Xe had had clairvoyant dreams before, and they'd never led xem wrong. Now, xe felt certain xe had some powerful insight to help find the killers.

A second person was torn with pity and anger. How could xe have let this happen? Xe decided then and there that xe would do whatever was in xyr power to stop whoever it was from killing again.

A third onlooker did not have such benevolent thoughts. Xe had been furious when the Professor informed them they would not be paid, and xe felt wronged. Now, dark words ran through xyr mind.
"Serves him right. He shouldn't have lied to us. Anyway, I did like the movies."
Xe made up xyr mind that even though xe wasn't willing to kill the way this had been done, xe would do what xe could to help whoever was responsible.
"Maybe they'll reward me!", xe thought.

And the rest just wondered what to do next.

IT IS NOW DAY 1. Away we go. Wolves stop PMing.

The Living
Nerwen
Pitch
Wilwa
Shasta
Sally
Lottie
Greenie
skip
Boro
The Elf-warrior
Fea
Eomer
Agan

The Dead
Professor Inzil- Head full of knowledge cracked open Night 1

[Shastanis Althreduin]

Poor Professor... I was looking forward to going back in time. Haha, looking 'forward' to go 'back'.

In any case, let's get the ball rolling, shall we? I'd like to accuse the lovely Fea for no real reason other than that she's pretty. Defend yourself!

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Originally Posted by Shastanis Althreduin

I'd like to accuse the lovely Fea for no real reason other than that she's pretty. Defend yourself!

It's not my fault. I haven't even shampooed my hair in like two days. My cuticles are ragged and I'm sure my mascara's probably done that smudge-at-the-corner-of-your-eyes thing because I'm too lazy to wash my face before bed like a good human ought to do.

I'd like to blame Agan for nothing in particular and tell her specifically that I'm a wolf.

[Boromir88]

Originally Posted by Feanor of the Peredhil

I'd like to blame Agan for nothing in particular and tell her specifically that I'm a wolf.

I'm a smelly armpit pickle! At least it's a good smell.

[wilwarin538]

Originally Posted by Shastanis Althreduin

I'd like to accuse the lovely Fea for no real reason other than that she's pretty. Defend yourself!

Ha, it amuses me that this is not the first time I've heard someone use 'she's pretty' as a reason for suspicion.

So than our situation: we're trapped in a house with a bunch of psychos who actually liked the LotR movies, and we can't just put someone in the time machine and send them back so they can see who did this, because the only one who knew how to use the machine is dead. Well....that's not so bad....at least we have food....*whimpers*


Anyway, I'll be back in the morning and should be around a lot.

x'ed with Fea, and I love that we both made Genevamoot references.

[Loslote]

Originally Posted by wilwarin538

we can't just put someone in the time machine and send them back so they can see who did this, because the only one who knew how to use the machine is dead.

Just because it'll almost certainly result in an explosion doesn't mean we can't try! After all, three of us are evil anyway - let's make them try it! So...who wants to confess?

[Boromir88]

Do you think it can be converted to be a useful teleportation machine? All these machines, time, teleport, washing, operate on the same equipment. It's just a matter of doing some re-arranging of wires.

[satansaloser2005]

Originally Posted by Loslote

Just because it'll almost certainly result in an explosion doesn't mean we can't try! After all, three of us are evil anyway - let's make them try it! So...who wants to confess?

To wolvery, or to being awesome?

Okay, you caught me. I'm pretty much amazing.


Are we lynching people for that now?



ETA: x'd since the post I quoted. And okay, okay, I get the hint. But can I rest before I hop in my TARDIS and save the Day?

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

People Shasta talks about:

• 'accuses' Fea for "no real reason other than that she's pretty."
• points out that Greenie's the only one to try to get things moving
• points out that Lottie's quietness is very out of character and that he may vote for her
• asks 'she for whom the moon doth shine' what she thinks of Eomer's vote (for Greenie); as a side note, I'm not at all certain who this question was directed to, and I've been wondering if he meant me
• notes that Pitch's suspicion of Fea seems sudden and forced, since he hadn't mentioned any suspicion prior; not sure Pitchwolf would be clumsy enough to bandwagon so shamelessly
• points out that it's odd that Sally agrees with him about Pitch being wolfy and trying to bandwagon Fea

Note: Shasta does not vote

People Who Interact with or mention Shasta:

• Fea: lazily argues that his assessment of her physical beauty is shoddy, since she's not all that, blah blah blah.
• Wilwa: points out that Shasta's suggestion that Fea is pretty is not original
• Agan: 'blames Shasta for [her] own special reasons' (citing that playing is different once you've done it in person with your co-village); jokes that Shasta's first post means he's evil (which is a traditional first Day joke); points out that his banter with Fea is either buttering her up or two wolves playing; says Shasta doesn't seem to want to kill Peter Jackson;
• Boro: says that Shasta butters people up just by looking at them;
• Pitch: says Shasta's guilty of making lame jokes; claims he has no read on Shasta;
• Greenie: says she's lost count of the number of times Shastawolf has totally fooled her; notes that she can understand Shasta's suspicion of Lottie, but that she understands Lottie's lack of participation at that point;
• Sally: corrects Shasta's mistake about DL; says Shasta seems 'strange'; agrees with Shasta that Pitch's suspicion of Fea seems bogus; ranks Shasta in 4th place on her suspicion list
• Lottie: specifically reserves judgment on Shasta

---

Now, it's possible that the wolves killed Shasta for a multitude of reasons.

Either Shasta seemed like the Seer, or he didn't.

If he did, that makes Fea and Pitch look suspicious. Fea because he accused her at all (for being pretty), but mostly Pitch, since Shasta's suspicion of him was based on Pitch's attempts to discredit Fea.

Since it was attempts to discredit Fea that made Pitch look bad to Shasta, that suggests that Shasta didn't actually believe Fea was bad.

If Shasta was killed for looking Seerish, this exonerates Lottie, since Shasta said she might be the cobbler, and the wolves would not know who the cobbler is, nor would Shasta-seer be able to actually tell the difference between cobbler and ordo. Ie: if Lottie was a wolf, she wouldn't think Shasta is seer for claiming she might be cobbler. Ie: If Shasta died because the wolves thought he was seer, it means that Pitch is a wolf and Lottie is not.

If Shasta wasn't killed for looking like the seer:

It means that he was killed either to make somebody look bad, or not to make anybody look bad.

If he was killed to make somebody look bad, it would make Aganzir, Greenie, and Sally look poorly due to their comments about him, and it would make Pitch and Lottie look poorly due to his comments about them. If he was killed to make non-wolves look bad, it means that the remaining wolves are most likely within this group: Nerwen, Wilwa, skip, Boro, or Eomer. There is a corollary here that the wolves may have wished to direct suspicion toward themselves so as to hide in the open. Since those who look bad due to the death of Shasta are Agan, Greenie, Sally, Pitch, and Lottie, one must try to decide if any of them are likely to double bluff (answer: yes).

If he was killed as a trail-less to make nobody look bad, on the other hand, it could be anybody.

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Something I think I forgot to add to that last post is what I actually think...

Which is that I'm assuming Shasta was killed to be 'trail-less', since all arguments for or against end up being, "Yeah, it's obvious it was totally this person! (Or that one)."

[Boromir88]

Originally Posted by Feanor of the Peredhil

Which is that I'm assuming Shasta was killed to be 'trail-less', since all arguments for or against end up being, "Yeah, it's obvious it was totally this person! (Or that one)."

I noticed that too!

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Fea

(...)Now, it's possible that the wolves killed Shasta for a multitude of reasons.

Either Shasta seemed like the Seer, or he didn't.

If he did, that makes Fea and Pitch look suspicious. Fea because he accused her at all (for being pretty), but mostly Pitch, since Shasta's suspicion of him was based on Pitch's attempts to discredit Fea.

*applauds Fea's objectivity*

Originally Posted by Fea

...explores various reasons why Shasta might have been killed...

Thing is, the immediate question isn't so much "why was my shining jewel killed?" as, "why wasn't one of the EW voters killed?"


The Elf-Warrior Voters

1. Skip.

Originally Posted by skip spence

Okay, I'm back and as I should have been in bed hours ago I gotta take a quick shot from the hip (and in all fairness any vote at this point is just that).

The Elf-Warrior has only made one post so far but there's just something about the timing and the subject matter and the phrasing of that post that seems a bit sinister to me.

Especially the last part, which I highlighted. There's something potentially euphemistic about that phrase. Possibly veiled wolfish banter. Only one way to find out:

++The Elf-warrior

2. Fea.

Originally Posted by Feanor of the Peredhil

++Elf

Not because I particularly suspect her (I reserve opinions until Day 2, as everyone knows) but because I have nobody better to vote for and because with a village this small, odds are solid that if I threw a rock I'd hit a wolf. And because she's quiet, and you can't analyze a statue.

3. Lottie.

Originally Posted by Loslote

++Elf

Sorry, TEWie.

Lottie's reasons are given at #71.

Originally Posted by Lottie

The only other people of note were Fea, who got a whopping four "cobbler" checks and one "innocent" check, and Eomer and TEWie, who got nothing. I might vote for one of them for being so quiet.

4. Boro.

Originally Posted by Boromir88

++Elf-Warrior

Edit: crossed with Lottie.

Boro's reasons are given at #84.

Originally Posted by Boro

The votes are spread out enough where surely you could have gone with someone else maybe a little suspicious other than "for self-preservation"

Now you are forcing my hand to you or Fea, and you weren't someone I said "no lynch."

Comments: If Elf had turned out innocent, this would have looked like one blatant, eeevilll bandwagon. Boro's vote is the only one with even a remotely adequate reason behind it. I find it interesting that all four of these people are still alive, actually. You'd think they'd all look like Seers!

Conclusion? I'd say the wolves probably had either a particularly good reason for killing Shasta, or for not killing any EW-voters (the latter reason would likely be "one of them's a wolf"). Of course, it's possible they just couldn't make up their minds who looked the most dangerous, or else wanted to avoid the Ranger.

I have to go out now, but in the meantime, here's yesterDay's votes for your general perusal:

Day One votes

Known wolves in italics, known innocents underlined.

Eomer--> Greenie (1)

Greenie--> Fea (1)

Pitch--> Fea (2)

Agan--> Sally (1)

skip--> The Elf-Warrior (1)

Sally--> Pitch (1)

Fea--> The Elf-Warrior (2)

The Elf-Warrior--> Fea (3)

Wilwa––> Pitch (2)

Lottie––> The Elf-Warrior (3)

Boro--> The Elf-Warrior (4)

Didn't vote: Nerwen, Shasta.

EDIT: X'd since Fea at #101.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Hello everyone. I hope to contribute much more today. It will be in two stages: the first, pretty sporadic, as I'll be trying to post when I think no-one at work is watching me; but probably in more detail tonight.

Right, I was pleasantly surprised to see we bagged a wolf on Day One - more so because I was convinced EW was innocent! Looking back at the chain of events, the lynching of EW seems suspicious (I see Nerwen has already made similar comments today). I just couldn't see it - why all those votes for, to my mind, innocuous behaviour? And lo and behold: wolf dead.

Food for thought, anway.

Excuse me if I missed it (the Downs deleted one of my posts a week or so ago - can you believe that?) but I didn't see a vote from Shasta.

Actually, the annoying thing about EWolf being dead is that there's so little record of any interaction. Not a lot to go on, but maybe something will stand out.