MAFIA 63: THE SCOURGE [HIDDEN]

[Tom Bombadil]

NIGHT HAS ENDED. PLEASE HOLD

[Jamiet99uk]

If I die, get over your shock and then look at BunnyGo, Bozo, Ghug, PE or Rdrivera tomorrow. Those be my scum suspects as of nowish.

[Tom Bombadil]

CHAPTER 3


Jessica stared up at the stars, her hands still shaking from the day’s events. The trip back to the barracks had been a haze - she had trouble remembering the specifics of how exactly they got home. She had climbed to the roof once they had been dismissed, grateful to be alone, and sobbed until she was too exhausted to continue. Now she simply sat on the roof and looked up into the space.

Why are you so sad? You barely even knew her. You knew people were going to die.

Jess thought she was going to be able to handle this. Her training had covered the loss of life. Her mother dealt with it every day, leading the military. She felt embarrassed that she allowed death to impact her so much. But it did – she could not shake the images from her mind.

The sound of the roof hatch opening startled her and she turned to see her mother climb up from the ladder below. Without her Captain’s attire on, Amanda Bates looked an entirely different person. Her hardened muscles pulled at her shirt as she walked, stressing the fabric at the shoulders, yet she had an aura of softness without her armor. She walked forward and embraced her daughter in a long hug.

Jess melted in her mother’s arms, the tears beginning to flow down her cheeks once more.

“I’m sorry mom.”

“You have nothing to be sorry about. You did well Jess.”

“I missed the shot. I failed. I…I….I let her….”

Her mother put her finger to Jess’s lips and pulled her in squeezing tighter.

“No Jess. You need to learn that you cannot do everything. We fight these animals because we must. For our people. Soldiers will die. Friends will die. It gets easier, for better or worse.”

“I don’t think I want it to get easier,” replied Jess.

“I know. But it will anyway. You must learn when to care, and when to let things go. It will come with time, love.”

“That could have been me.”

“Yes, it could have. But it wasn’t. And the only thing we can do now is move forward and protect our people as best we can.”

Captain Bates broke away from her daughter and smiled.

“You did good today soldier. Grieve tonight, but let it be tomorrow."

With that she strode away, into the dark night. The hatch opened and she descended, leaving her daughter alone on the rooftop. Jess looked to the east, towards the geyser fields they fought on earlier. It was at that moment that she vowed that she would do everything she could to not lose another member of her Regiment. She needed to be strong for them.

Jess went back down to her quarters, wondering if her roommates would still be awake. The room was dark, the one window letting in a shimmer of light. In the cots to the left she could make out two bodies under the covers. At least one of Kaitlyn and Margaret were asleep, judging by the snoring that filled the room. A brief smile crossed her lips, as she never thought such loud snoring would ever bring her joy in life. But she was thankful that her roommates had made it back. Besides her mother, they were the only people she had ever been close to here.

She turned to the other side of the room where her empty cot waited next to Samantha’s. Samantha laid there but Jess could not tell if she slept or not. She tip-toed across the room just in case and slipped out of her heavy, warm clothes and into her sweats. Jess climbed into the cot, careful to keep it from creaking as it was so apt to do. She nestled under the blankets and closed her eyes.

A quiet sniffle woke Jess as she dozed off. Was she imagining it? No – she heard another sniffle, this time accompanied by a quiet sob. She turned towards the noise trying to locate it. It was coming from Samantha’s cot – she was completely covered by her blankets but was clearly crying. Jess stood briefly and pushed her cot closer, so that it was directly next to Sam’s. She climbed back in and then reached her hand toward Sam next to her. She found Sam’s hand and grasped it. The crying grew louder, and Jess felt the grip tighten.

Eventually Jess fell asleep.

-------------------------------

The next morning, Jess awoke to chatter. She looked at the clock and it read 8:45. She had slept in far longer than was usual. The rest of the girls were talking amongst themselves at the table. Kaitlyn turned, seeing Jess rise.

“Come on Jess. Let’s go get something to eat.”

“Ok ok. Let me get dressed and I’ll meet you down there.”

The girls nodded and walked out the door. They would be heading to the mess hall downstairs. Jess threw open her covers and walked over to the closet to put on some proper clothes. She realized someone was still standing in the doorway. She glanced up and saw Samantha still standing there, hesitating. Sam looked up and smiled.

“Thanks. I feel better now. I’ll see you down there” she said.

Jess smiled and nodded as Sam turned and walked out the door.

When Jess finally made it down to the mess hall, most everyone was already eating. She grabbed a bowl of oatmeal and a couple of pieces of fresh fruit and sat with the rest of the girls. They chattered in hushed tones; an air of angst hung over the group.

“What’s going on?” asked Jess.

“You haven’t heard?” replied Margaret. “Candance left sometime overnight. I guess she just packed up all her stuff when everyone was sleeping and took off. She left a note saying that she was going to the farms to start a family. I wish she had said goodbye.”

Jess frowned. She was shaken up by the prior day’s events, but she would never leave. Her people depended on the fuel that they retrieved. At least she knew she was not the only one struggling with Lindsay’s death. Plus, Margaret said she was going to start a family – something that was equally important. Now that the boys that had evacuated the Rhapsody fifeteen years ago were coming of age, producing children was a new priority – and soon the men would be able to fight as well, once they were trained.

Still, Jess could not help feeling betrayed.

I will never abandon my friends like that. NEVER.

---------------------------------

DEMONRHK has left the regiment (DIED). They were Private Margaret Berry, a VANILLA TOWNIE.

DAY 2 HAS BEGUN. YOU MAY NOW POST

[Durga]

Well, I'm definitely shocked at the kill choice that's for sure

[ghug]

Lol thanks scum. Do Chaqa next.

[e.m.c^42]

Huh.

[Durga]

Shocked at the scum read from HR tbh, and I don't want to be his next tunnel victim I don't have the energy for that

[e.m.c^42]

I'm afraid to say that I'm confused over the flavour text, since who is Candance? Why did Margaret vanish out of nowhere?
This must be the GM trolling Bungo lmao

[Durga]

I have unfortunately not been reading this novella Tom is composing

[Durga]

I'm going to start with

##vote rdr

[damo666]

##vote celaph

[Jamiet99uk]

What a weird kill. RIP DemonRHK.
I was not roleblocked.

[President Eden]

##VOTE BunnyGo

Imma go read Demon.

[President Eden]

##VOTE BunnyGo

Imma go read Demon.

But like, not yet. Among Us!

[ghug]

##VOTE worcej

[aarodactyl]

My notes for DemonRHK was "new" and I had no read on them

[Jamiet99uk]

##vote celaph

Why are you voting for Celaph?

[aarodactyl]

EoN1 Reads List:

aarodactyl - No real thoughts, though I'm not a fan of the way he gave himself the option to vote both Maniac and ND and that's about it D1, particularly when he made posts interacting with a lot of other people

Bonatogether - Slight scum... The way he came out to say he might look suspicious because he has to play differently this time due to plus ones being banned sounded an awful lot like a pre-emptive defence.

Bozotheclown - Standard. Null.

brainbomb - Much more like the brain of yore, and I'm not a huge fan of some of his arguments (suggesting that ghug was sheeping Durga onto ND when ghug started the ND wagon is a pretty huge thing to have somehow overlooked). But then, that's exactly what I'd have expected of the brain of yore, so who knows.

BunnyGo - His attack on me D1 felt extremely different to the way he played last game where he was friendly and cheerful and avoided conflict, so I'm leaning town. I also find PE's case that Bunny is scum because he's not posting at night to be full of a gigantic hole stemming from the fact that 1 weird town night (where Bunny was the top poster only because a lot of people had already begun not talking that night) is his only proof that this is a scumtell for him.

celaph - One of the people on a pretty weak ND wagon and then ends up voting Maniac, not the best of looks either way. Expected somewhat more. Null.

damo666 - Leaning town, seems a lot more willing to engage people than last game, but I've been fooled before

DemonRHK - Very serious very fast, but I think that's a pretty solid townmove and I don't expect him to have been the first to break the start of game shitposts as scum. Liked his consistency too. Strong Town.

Donny Dude - No thoughts whatsoever

Durga - Scum. The following onto ND felt opportunistic and without belief, and until the moment where I said I scumread her I felt she was being extremely friendly and basically as inoffensive as possible, and only after that was she jolted into pushing harder on ND too and being somewhat more proactive. I feel like the way she pushed Chaqa and then gave up on it later was very inauthentic too - Basically folding into other people's reads of him rather than firmly believing in it herself.

emc - Still shocked he followed my botscan read vote on rdrivera given he'd already brought up last game and clearly therefore remembers how I'd made a similar (though much more detailed) case on him then. Don't think he'd have the balls to start a wagon on me as scum given what happened last game though, so I'm leaning town.

ghug - Fairly town. Like the way he recused himself from the option of voting me when I came up, given it's very different to his scumplay in M60, though of course he could have anticipated that I'd not be daykilled anyway. Also think that his criticism of the Maniac wagon despite how weak his own wagon was is something he'd lack the confidence to do as scum.

Hamilton Brian - I don't think I've ever noticed HB less than I have in this game, which is somewhat jarring and not a good thing. Slight scum who definitely needs to be looked into more.

Jamie - Responded to my bait with the aggression I'd expect him to show as town and which was so lacking last game, though the fact everyone had basically spelt out exactly why Jamie was so scummy to him last game means that a conscious change of meta is possible. Unlikely though. Leaning town.

NCej - No opinion at all

President Eden - Found myself fundamentally disagreeing with an awful lot of what he's said, but my only previous memory of him is all the way back in M10 and I do recall his leadership being a big part in the town imploding that game, so maybe that's just how he is

rdrivera - Scum. Very scum. No opinions or thoughts on anyone D1 which is so completely out of character for someone who seems to usually do as much as they can D1 before they get NK'd. Comes in N1 to basically OMGUS me without any thoughts of a case or indeed without remotely interacting with the myriad of people who had townread me for exactly the same stuff he was claiming was my obvious scum meta. He's done absolutely nothing to try and find scum aside from that, and he just ain't town.

Vecna - Ah yes, he exists.

---

Since I typed this in advance I've read Bona's reads list and the fact that he basically townreads everyone except Bunny is not something I like at all. Increases my scumread on him. The fact he's nowhere near as interested in needling people who scumread him (something which was basically his defining trait last game) is also the total opposite of how I expected him to react.

Did anyone else read DemonRHK so much? It's weird to me that HR's only strong town read was killed. That reads scummy to me.

[aarodactyl]

I'm going to pull a bona and go watch a movie, but I'm going to reread maniac and demonRHK at some point.

[President Eden]

##VOTE BunnyGo

Imma go read Demon.

But like, not yet. Among Us!

The only thing that stands out to me is Demon calling out the aarodactyl/celaph exchange on p45. I haven't read what it actually is, I'm just posting between rounds mid-meeting. But otherwise Demon seemed not to think much of day 1.