It is now night one. No Posting!

There is a small town in Northern England, located at that perfect distance between civilization and isolation. Inside of this town, there is an aquarium. The aquarium’s door is rusty and currently only attached to the woodenframe with one bronze hinge, posed to snap at a moments notice. The door opens. Barely.

Inside, the large room bears a resemblance to a humid rainforest. Fog swirls around the floor, in between iron cages and around thick, wooden tables. The air is cloudy and humid, condensing on the glass sides of hundreds of tanks of every shape and size. Dozens of small round tanks are stacked clumsily in a corner, the kind of tanks that one can buy at a theme park, complete with a bag of water and a soon to be dead goldfish. In the other corner, a small parrot chirps happily in his cage. At the far end of the room is a large, rectangular tank. Roughly 8 foot by 5 foot, it dominates the back wall. Inside, 18 fish swim around in seemingly random spirals. A man walks past, and is heard to mutter, “Fish, eh? They all look the same to me. Useless and stupid, what a waste of time!” Contrary to popular belief, fish feel the same way about humans.

“I’m telling you, it is a stupid idea and it’ll never work”,
“No, no, no. You are missing the point, Isamil. I don’t want to jump out of the tank, God knows what would happen if I did!”
“Exactly what, then, do you plan to do?” asked an exhausted Isamil. He had been arguing with BadKarma for an hour about the possibility of escape. BadKarma always had a new idea to try, and it was always idiotic. Why did he even want to escape? He was always going on about a bigger world, full of adventure. Well, Isamil was content to live out the rest of his life in the tank. Adventures! Pfft, the mere thought of a fish having an adventure!
“Sorry to interrupt your daydream, but my plan is essentially very simple…” He rambled on for a bit, Isamil trying desperately to ignore him.
“Next, and this is where it becomes brilliant, we find a nice sharp rock and hide it. We get bought by an unsuspecting human and put in one of those plastic bags…”
Isamil mumbled, although it was altogether too mumbley to make out.
“Right, next we use the rock to cut through the plastic bag and we land in the drain. From there, home free!” BadKarma seemed very pleased with himself, and began to swim around in tight circles, occasionally shouting “Yeah!” and “Come on!” in a high-pitched, excited voice. Isamil mumbled once again, which was quickly followed by a sigh of relief as they came into view of the main group. Anyone was better than BadKarma!

The rest of the fish were all grouped on the bed of the tank, busily trying to get at the remains of the scattered fish food which had somehow managed to worm its way into several crevices. Each crevice was conveniently small enough to stop a mouth from entering, so the fish had to come up with a more crafty method of collecting food.

Overseeing the operation was the largest and most exotic animal in the tank. His tentacles whipped back and forth in the water angrily, a whirlwind of red and black. His beak glistened orange in the light, a warning to anyone stupid enough to cross him. He swished quickly from fish to fish, barking orders and insults.
“What the hell do you call that? Break it up and start again!” Two smaller orange fish turned towards the voice and put on brave faces. “But, lolfighter we spent half an hour on this.”
“I don’t care if you spent a day on it, it’s crap and needs replacing. What are your names lads? You definitely need to be put down for Pellet Recovery 101. Perhaps Isamil can teach you two idiots a thing or two” lolfighter said condescendingly. Two years he had been in this tank! Two bloody years and what did he have to show for it? A load of infant fish and not a single other octopus to talk to!
“I’m PlanetKiller, sir”, piped the one to lolfighter’s left. “And I’m Xentor, sir” stammered the one to his right. “Please don’t hurt us”, they both whimpered.

In a far off corner, several older angelfish were swimming around in slow circles and having a rather heated conversation.
“I’m telling you, those goldfish are nothing but trouble”, said Snidely fiercely.
“Aye, bunch of hooligans. They just waltz in and expect to be treated with respect!”
“Damn right. They all want respect, but will they give us any?”
“Hell no!” responded an angry Sky.
“At least lolfighter has his head on straight.”
“Yeah, he knows how to treat them just right”, agreed Omegaman.
“T’is a shame that he does not come to our meetings any more”, muttered a disappointed im lost.
The angelfish met once a week to discuss what they called important issues. They actually spent all of two minutes discussing important issues, such as the amount of fish food left in the store and the general state of the tank, and then went on to nag and whine about the younger fish for several hours.

Meanwhile, the younger fish were all enjoying themselves in the weeds and castle. They darted in and out of windows and doors, shouting in voices too high for the average human to hear. One of them, a small goldfish, sped past a cracked pillar, came out into the open water and stopped to get his breath back. “You…can’t…cat..ch me”, Zerobyte stammered, pausing for a deep breath after every word.
“Just watch me, I’m gonna get ‘ya!” shouted Pithlit, who suddenly put on a burst of speed towards Zerobyte
“Not if I can help it!” came another voice, it's owner nowhere to be found. Pithlit stopped in his tracks. “Who is that?” he said, a hint of fear creeping into his voice.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” laughed the voice, tauntingly.
A look of ease swept over Pithlit’s face, as he finally recognized the voice. “Soul Rider?”
“Awww, you figured it out!” came the voice. It sounded dissapointed.
“You going to come out?”
“Only if you can catch me!” The two goldfish entered the weeds, where they darted around aimlessly for several minutes, unable to see more than a few centimeters in front of themselves.
“Ow!”
“Ah ha! I got you!”
“You did not. I am over here, idiot”,
“Then what did we bump into?”
“Excuse me,” said a deep, grumbling voice, "but would you mind getting the hell off my arm?” The goldfish jumped, unaccustomed to being told what to do so directly. WonedSlackyStyle was once the priced possession of the shop owner, an eight armed, striped orange starfish, but had recently encountered a mid-life crisis and become a recluse. He spent days at a time in the vast green weeds, drifting out into the open occasionally in order to eat. Most of the fish in the tank ignored him completely, which was just fine by him. The less time he had to spend with anybody else, the better.

Out in the open, several fish had managed to create a pulley system and were busily trying to load a cylindrical blue pellet into the harness.
“Careful, careful, we don’t want to drop it now” said Kerotan, who had a bad habit or trying to order people around.
“Shut it, mate, I’m trying to work here”,
“Yeah, let him do his job”,
“Nice one, it’s coming up now. Only a bit more! Closer, closer”, said Kerotan, who had decided to ignore the rest of the group completely.
“Got it”, exclaimed a triumphant Saltzbad, “Right, now for the reward”. He lowered the pellet towards his mouth, bit off a corner, and chewed thoughtfully.
“So, how is it?” asked Freak83, who was small and red, with yellow spots. Suddenly, Saltzbad threw up, rather violently, all over Hellfire3k.
“Chicken”, Saltzbad said in the way of an explanation. The other fish turned away in disgust.
“Trust our luck. We spend an entire hour fixing up a textbook winch, only to get a chicken pellet!” Quaunaut, a small, black and rather fat fish, was not impressed. “I mean, it’s just not fair, is it?” He expected an answer, even to such an obviously rhetorical question, so he was surprised to see the rest of the group swivel their heads and attempt innocent whistles. A shadow passed over him, and a creeping thought entered his mind. Oh god, not him. Anyone but him! As the shadow became clearer, he noticed several tentacles, stirred up into a frenzy. Oh god, why did he have to hear me?
“What’s all this shouting about then?” lolfighter asked the question with an air of innocence, although both him and Quaunaut knew exactly what the shouting was about.
“What’s this? A pellet, is it?” He swam over to the pellet and took a deep breath.
“Smells like chicken. Lucky you guys, eh?” A smile crept slowly over his face. Some of the older fish had seen this smile before, and they darted around, looking for cover. The younger fish just stared, perplexed.
“Si—Sir” stammered Quaunaut, “We can’t be expected to eat that, can we?” Even some of the younger fish had gotten the hint now. The clearing seemed to be conveniently short on solid cover, and several of them broke for the far away weeds.
“OF COURSE WE CAN BE EXPECTED TO EAT THAT”, screamed lolfighter, “During the great famine of ’03, we were lucky to get a piece of limestone to chew on. Do you have any idea how important food is, or was, to us? Every single one of us would have killed for so much as half a chicken pellet. Right, Isamil?” lolfighter looked to him for some sort of confirmation, but Isamil was too busy staring at the surface. A large dark shape was suspended above the water, and a moment later there was a tremendous splash. Something had been dropped into the tank. Something large. Logic dictated that it was a fish, but none of them had ever seen a fish with spikes, tentacles and sharp, pointy teeth before.

---

And with that, the game begins. Please remember that the story does in no way reflect the real game. Basing your votes on the story would be an extremely stupid thing to do. Day one will begin at Tuesday 3rd May, 19:00 GMT. Special roles and wolves, please remember to pm me your choices for tonight.

The following people are in the game:

1. lolfighter
2. Kerotan
3. im lost
4. Pithlit
5. Omegaman!
6. Hellfire3k
7. Xentor
8. Planetkiller
9. Quaunaut
10. ZeroByte
11. Isamil
12. Sky
13. Freak83
14. WonedSlackyStyle
15. Soul Rider
16. BadKarma
17. Snidely
18. SaltzBad

It is now Day One. Post away.

They started, perplexed, unable to turn away. The fish, if you could call it that, was roughly the same size as lolfighter. A short, muscular tail swished gently in the still water. Its body was long and sleek, with several sharp points sticking out of its stomach. Its angular head gave it the appearance of a pike, and a row of razor sharp teeth did nothing to lighten its image. Blood red eyes stared at the fish. The fish stared back.

“What the hell is that?” Quaunaut asked, apparently still breathing after his ordeal with lolfighter.
“I haven’t the foggiest. Isamil, any ideas?”
“Looks like a pike, but the proportions are way off. Also, what the hell are those stringy things?” Isamil was confused. He considered himself quite a widely traveled fish, and was surprised to see something that he could not even narrow down to a species.
“They look like tentacles of some kind”, answered Kerotan, ever the positive one.
“Aye, definitely tentacles”, answered lolfighter “and I should know, all things considered. Any idea what that black stuff is? It is all over him”.
“I have absolutely no idea. It could be black scales, but I have never seen anything quite like it. Black scales should be shiny and uniform. That, whatever it is, looks more like an infection or something. Answered Sky, who, like Isamil, had traveled through quite a few oceans in his life time.
“So, what should we do”, asked Hellfire3k “should we just go up and greet it?”
“And what should we say? ‘Hey, nice to meet you. Lovely tentacles, by the way’. Brilliant idea”, answered Kerotan sarcastically. However, the thing made the choice easy. It started to swim towards them.

Snidely made to go up and make a welcome, but lolfighter shoved him in the back and pushed in front while Snidely was doubled over.
“I believe, as the senior member of this tank, that if anyone should meet with this... new member of our society, then it should be me”, lolfighter said pompously. With that, he swam out slowly towards the black covered fish.
“Christ, anyone would have thought that he was royalty, the way he goes on”, Badkarma sniped bitterly.
“Give him a break”, responded im lost. “He is, after all, our most senior member”. He intended it to be a joke, but several of the other fish shot looks at him, looks saying “traitor”.
“You lot, q-q-quiet. They are right next to each other now!” stuttered an excited Xentor.

lolfighter stopped in front of the fish. The fish slowed down, as if to stop and exchange pleasantries. Any minute now. Any minute now. The fish drew closer, to within speaking distance. I wonder where he comes from. Perhaps Turkey, I’ll have to ask Isamil .He spotted the two tentacles, swishing back and forth slowly. Yes, definitely Turkey. Oh, here he is. Time to meet him. lolfighter extended a tentacle to shake, as he often imagined octopi would do in the wild when they met each other. The fish ignored the outstretched tentacle. In fact, ignored would not be the word. Ignored would imply that the fish had actually taken notice of lolfighter and decided purposely to not talk to him. It swam past lolfighter without batting an eyelid, indifferent to his angry gaze. It got all of three inches before lolfighter lost his temper. Everyone else cringed.
“Just who the hell do you think you are?” screamed lolfighter, “In my day, that was not how we greeted each other. What the hell is wrong with you?” lolfighter was confident in his little speech, but he lost a bit of steam when the fish slowed, stopped and turned around. Its tentacles were no longer swishing slowly, but rising threateningly at lolfighter. The fish stared at him. Not a friendly “Hey, how are you doing?” stare. The stare said, “If you ever talk to me like that again, we will find out just how fast octopi regrow their tentacles back after having them ripped apart.” lolfighter took the hint. The fish turned and swam towards the others, trailing little pieces of black material. By now most of them had decided to spend the rest of the night in the opposite side of the tank, however.

“Wow, now that was something”,
“Yeah, I never thought that lolfighter would be shouted at before. Normally it is us who get shouted at”,
“Yep. Scary though, wasn’t it?”
“I wonder what the adults think about it. I really wouldn’t like to meet that guy alone”. The younger fish had darted for their castle as soon as the shouting had ended, seeking safety in their little secret lair.
“One thing though, I will never forget that stare”, ZeroByte said frightfully as he lay down to sleep.

The water, for some reason, was darker than it normally was. It also had a purple tinge to it. Now that he thought about it, everything seemed a little odd. It was like he was seeing the world through someone else’s eyes. At first everything was a blur, but soon he managed to pick out features in the darkness. Something solid and uniform stood tall up ahead. He knew it was the castle because he could make out the square battlements. As he went past the window he thought he saw something glow, but in a split second it had gone. What the hell was happening? He took a sharp turn to his right and sat facing the weeds. It felt like he was moving himself, but he felt out of control, almost dreamy. He swished forward quickly, and noticed for the first time that he was definitely not a small, red fish with yellow spots anymore. His tail was powerful, muscular. He entered the weeds.

Inside, he could make out a faint glow. The weeds, normally a dark green, were a stunning purple. He could feel his heart racing now, or at least it felt like his heart. He did not know anymore. As he drew closer, the faint glow grew an outline. He could not make it out completely, but it looked large and flat. It seemed to have eight arms. Then, a second later, his mind pieced it all together. Large, flat, eight arms... He opened his mouth in horror.

Freak83 bolted upright, his face and body laced with sweat. His mind was racing, far more quickly than he was accustomed to. Weeds…Flat…Large…Eight arms… He had to warn someone. He darted quickly from fish to fish, shaking them awake and screaming in a high pitched voice “The weeds! The weeds! Something is in the weeds!”
“Wha.. Christ, what time is it? Asked an agitated Omegaman.
“No…time… to explain. The weeds!”
“God, what is he on about?” mumbled SaltzBad.
“No idea”, answered PlanetKiller “but I think we should go to the weeds”.
“Yes.. The weeds. Quickly!”
With that, Freak83 bolted into the night, leaving SaltzBad, PlanetKiller and Omegaman in his wake. They each gave one another a thoughtful look, and then chased after him.

They finally caught up with Freak83 at the edge of the weeds. He was swimming in tight circles, muttering under his breath in high pitched squeals.
“What the hell is this all about then, Freak83?”
“Just.. Just go in there?”
“Why?”
“All right, all right”.
The three fish entered the weeds. They called back to Freak83, but he adamantly refused to enter.
“Suit yourself”, they responded, and carried on with their expedition.
“So, what exactly are we looking for?” SaltzBad asked. Not a single decent night’s sleep in days, and what happens? Running errands for a bloody small, red fish with yellow spots.
“I have no idea”, responded Omegaman “Just keep look…”. He suddenly went deathly silent.
“What? Sorry I could not hea..” PlanetKiller stopped in his tracks, unable to will himself any further. “Oh God, this cannot be happening. Dear God, no…”
The surrounding weeds were sprayed with blood. The ground was stained dark red, and there was a crumpled heap in the center of the small clearing. A single orange arm lay snapped across the body, covered in blood. WonedSlackyStyle was barely identifiable, such was the terrible scene in front of their eyes.

---

Just a few reminders about the game:

• Put your votes in BOLD or they will not count
• If you die you may not post or give away information anymore
• You can change your vote as many times as you want, provided an instalynch has not happened.

Players still left in the game:

1. lolfighter
2. Kerotan
3. im lost
4. Pithlit
5. Omegaman!
6. Hellfire3k
7. Xentor
8. Planetkiller
9. Quaunaut
10. ZeroByte
11. Isamil
12. Sky
13. Freak83
14. Soul Rider
15. BadKarma
16. Snidely
17. SaltzBad

Instalynch is at 9 votes.

The day will end at 19:00 GMT on Thursday 5th May

Good luck...

Hmm. The wolves probably wanted to nail an experienced player right off the bat, like last time. Only then it was Freak that was taken out. I guess they didn't want to risk killing Freak in case he was guarded.

First off, nice story so far, muffin. Unique and very entertaining...in a sort of morbid way.

As for slacky's death, well, can't say it's surprising. An experienced player, gone right at the start.

What this tells me, right from the start, is that Freak is a human. Freak and slacky go to the same school; if Freak were a wolf, he probably wouldn't want to kill slacky right away, because there is a relatively high chance that slacky would have trusted him regardless. Of course, Freak could also have wanted slacky out just so he could gloat in person, and/or so he wouldn't run the risk of giving himself away offline, but I'd sooner believe the first theory. So, congrats, that's one less person to check for wolfy-ness.

And I've scanned the logs, but I got nothing on potential wolves....nor did I really expect to. If anyone has anything to share, that'd be great, but it's just my experience that the first impressions are rarely accurate, so I hold no hopes of us tagging a wolf on the first day. That said, I think it's best if we try to rule out possible wolves at this time (which I've started to do with Freak), rather than pin people down as possible wolves, which hardly ever works.

And so the game of random baseless accusations begins!

Bad luck Woned, we'll get em for you.

And I am so damn cute in the story

I'm surprised they started with slacky. He is experienced, but last game he created quite a bit of controversy and got himself killed, that seems like a good human for the wolves to leave around.

TheMuffinMan, you still have my name listed with a capital 'L' even though you changed it in the story.

Time for my random vote. I vote for Xentor. As always, it will change if there's any reason to do so.

When I was reading the part about me in the story I felt sure I was about to get wolfed first again.

Pleasently surprised? On the account that I'm still alive yes, on the account that slacky took the blow - no.

While there is no specific reason for this, I imagine it's one of two reasons they killed slacky.

- As stated, he was considered to be an experienced player and the wolves wanted him gone. (or thought I would be guarded)
- They could have tried to create a set up that makes me look guilty. I'm not one to gloat, and personally I would rather see slacky alive than dead.

While I don't have any releasable information at this point, I am going to hold my vote until I see a reason to lynch anyone today.

Jeez, I already said I used language improper for the conclusion I was drawing. What more do you want? And I don't think it really incriminates Freak...I mean, neither scenario is more "right" than the other. My first thought when I saw slacky had been killed was "Oh, Freak won't like that." I suppose it's just as likely he wouldn't want to have to lie to slacky in real life....which puts us right back at the beginning, with nothing.

rawr good storie muffinman...
I think everyones putting freak in the hotspot lol..
But considering the circumstances iam not going to vote at this time... lemme think it over

I wouldn't vote for Freak just because he wasn't killed. Like I said, the wolves may have thought that the guardian would protect Freak first thing.

Wow, I never intended for that statement to put Freak in the hotspot. At the very most, it gives him a reason for going either way, which means that he is an unknown, just like the rest of us.

And, following im lost's lead of voting randomly on the first day for a relatively new player, I'm going to vote for Soul Rider. As always, this will change should any real information arise, which I find - unfortunately - unlikely.

I'd just like to get something out first:
Always assume that a wolf will never make a mistake or slip-up. If someone slips up or says something way too suspicious, that person is probably human. Wolves will (or should) quadruple-check their posts for that kinda stuff.

Anyways, this is an unsurprising tactic for the wolves. Quaunaut is my vote, and may change.

The early game really does play differently than the midgame. I've been borderline-inactive in the early game in all the games I've played so far. Apparently I need to learn how to hedge my statements better when the paranoia is the greatest.

I wouldn't say that - Swift slipped up a couple of times last game, in my opinion. I really did believe he was a wolf.

That was in reply to Omega, by the way. :|

Isamil. Because he won't freaking weld me.

More sensible suggestions when I can post from a keyboard that doesn't suck.

Hellfire3k

No particular reason, merely that you haven't got any votes and should be safe. Subject to change and feel free to vote for me in return. I've no idea who wolves may be as yet, but I would strongly advise against voting out one of our best players (i.e. Sky or Freak) on the first day with virtually zero evidence. Also, I point you all to the second page of the pregame thread as to why I think Sky is human with no role. He could just be a very clever wolf, but I think it's worth noting.

And Nemesis Zero couldn't have been a wolf, because he accidently slipped the #ns-twg password out last game.

(:

I don't see how that shows anything about Sky's role. It's most likely that he didn't know his role when he made those posts, so it shows nothing.

Thinking about it again... you could be right. I really didn't think that through properlly.

Yeah, I'm actually going to have to agree with these two ^. Those posts really don't say anything definitively about me. Although as a side comment, I'd like to say that the pm notifier thing just doesn't work for me. I turned it on after that little mistake with the role pms, but it didn't do anything today when I received a pm from Nem0 (concerning a certain thread in the offtopic forum I have to go make now).

On a completely different note, Quaunaut hasn't made a single post in either the pregame thread or this thread, and he hasn't been very active on IRC either (he was on a while ago, didn't say much, I think that was before we had our roles even). Just thought I would point that out.

Current votes:

Xentor - 1 (im lost)
Soul Rider - 1 (Sky)
Quaunaut - 1 (Omegaman!)
Isamil - 1 (Saltzbad)
Hellfire3k - 1 (PlanetKiller)

Woohoo! I survived my first day of my first game... And the first vote as initiation, eh?

Well, coincidentally, I had "$rand"-omly rolled a 9 on Sunday, so I was going to cast my random vote for Quaunaut... But since Omega beat me to it, I guess I'll hold off for a bit. I'll probably toss my random vote at lost if it comes to that, since you gave me my first

Anyway... Interesting story so far, Muff, but I don't like being a little s- s- stuttering b- b- baby goldfish...

Anyway, what I wanted to say from the terminal I posted from earlier - for a day 1 strategy we shouldn't put more than 2 votes on any person, and not have less than 2 people receive 2 votes if possible. That way we can avoid phantom votes and bandwagoning at the same time - until either a reasonable suspicion pops up or random lynch makes the decision for us. Just a suggestion.

Random lynches are scary. I mean, I could die!

But anyways, who else hasn't posted yet?

Only 5/18 people have voted. But the day ends Thursday. Plenty of time.

I don't intend to vote until about 30 miniutes before the day ends. I'm thinking of a few suspects, but I plan to give it time.
(Hmm, is the forum skin modified?)

Bein' sneaky are we?

Not impossible but very unlikly to happen on Day One.

That a wolf slips up on day one

argh i dont wana post cause i have nothing too say =[
but then you guys are going to get suspicous of me lol
Iam going to vote at the last mins too... i have nothing against anyone lol

Sorry guys. Real-life got in the way yesterday, so i wasnt able to read the story until this morning. Well my main goal, surviving the first night has been acheived. Will be on later to gve more thoughts. In case of any problems before voting, i return my random vote to sky.

Just hopping on while at work, i think i should make it clear my vote for sky is purely a return of the random vote he placed on me, not for any other reason. Obviously i'm new to this, don't want people to misunderstand why i'm doing things!!

Let's put a little pressure on, then: Quaunaut, this vote will be changed as soon as you post here.

Ah, to elaborate a little: Since the pregame thread went up, Quaunaut has made 24 posts across the boards, but not a single one in the pregame thread or in the game thread.
Quaunaut, you DO know that TWG is a commitment, don't you?

If he gets replaced, I'll of course change my vote as well.

Flerm. Where's all the talking?

Some of us are at work with little or no time to get online but i will meet up with you all in IRC later for a good chat, and for some help, i don't know how to read my logs!!! See ya in about 3 hrs!!

I´m voting for Pithlit for mysterious, undisclosed reasons.