ah Rubik. A hot topic right now, probably the most infamous player in this game as it currently stands.
Rubik voted for ExLight all the way back in
175, and then planted seeds for his eventual removal of said vote in
176, by acknowledging that when Ex pinkie swears it's usually honest but adding "though it only takes breaking one to cause it to become worthless". I am only pointing this out because when Rubik eventually unvotes Ex, in
180, it's on the basis that he believes Ex's pinkie swear, which comes immediately after Rubik's original vote. Honestly, this looks like a town progression to me, because Rubik said before the pinkie swear that he believed it. I would see this as a scum progression if Ex was scum, but seeing as he wasn't, this looks townie to me.
187 is the post in which Rubik mentioned it being a bad idea to kill strong players D1. Johnny made a good point against this post, seeing it's easy to discredit people's lynches on the basis of them being strong players as a way to make yourself look good. That post didn't sit right with me either, but Rubik's eventual explanation of it in
228 does make more sense as to what Rubik was going for.
313 is the post in which Rubik originally said that if Lar has a strong scum game like Sun he'd be a decent candidate for scum. On the surface, this looked incredibly scummy. Rubik then went on to, for much of the remainder of D1, continue saying Lar looked scummy because of things SunFan did as town (examples are in
338,
343,
345,
348, and
357). This entire exchange was interesting, but I still struggle to agree with anything Rubik was saying there. It also kinda goes against the whole "not lynching strong players D1" thing from earlier, even though Rubik admittedly didn't try to start a wagon on Lar. Regardless, I still find it weird to scum read someone you've essentially never played with before over someone else's scum play. I'm glad Rubik didn't vote or try to lynch Lar over it, because that would just be a really weird reason to lynch someone. That said though, the fact that he pushed it so hard but
didn't try going for a lynch is questionable behaviour.
437 Rubik pulls a 180 and votes for DekuNut, with no explanation.
438 supports lynching inactives. I've made it clear how I feel about lynching inactives D1 on the basis of them being inactive, but I don't think having a different opinion on that matter is AI.
459 is... OK? It's a fairly flimsy answer to my question, but I guess I'll accept it. Seems like a pretty lazy response tbh.
466 is an important post to keep in mind for later, so I'm leaving it here for now.
467/
468 fair? I mean, not wrong at the very least.
502,
508,
656,
716,
720, and
721 are all related to the SunFan lynch. At face value, I townread every single one of these posts.
983,
984, 987 and
1020 are an interesting series of events from the start of D2. I was really disappointed that Rubik came in saying he was mechanically cleared, but then it ended up being completely inconclusive. That said, I don't know if Rubik, as scum, comes in on D2 saying he could be mechanically cleared if he didn't genuinely believe that to be true.
1040 and
1044. These posts, however, make no sense. This goes back to post #466, which I linked above, because that is the post Rubik is referring to when he thinks Lar was scared of being vigged by him. That is a stretch at best and completely ridiculous at worst. 466 doesn't read at all like a threat and the fact that Rubik jumped to the conclusion of Lar roleblocking him for it is kinda dumb. It also doesn't mean anything because town roleblockers exist in the role list and I believe Lar was a bit suspicious of Rubik. Honestly I think these are Rubik's worst posts up to this point.
1075 votes Deku again, with no explanation. This was also before the Lover claim.
1086 Having gone through every one of Rubik's posts up to here, can confirm this is true, and potentially not a great look for Johnny.
1092 lol this is where Rubik town read Ex, who is dead. Guess I can't fault it too much, Rubik was on a special trip for the EoD1 after all. I do really respect that after I said I was tempted to derp clear Rubik for this, he responded in
1125 by telling me not to, and being honest about how he's not above playing dumb as scum. I don't really think scum Rubik says that sincerely. And there's another post later on that gives me similar vibes (I'll get to that in a little bit). Points for sincerity, if he's scum then I really have a lot of respect for him as a player for being honest in that moment.
1136 and
1138 I think I can kind of understand this? It didn't make sense to pressure Rag to vote at the time, seeing as she was already one of the top posters only behind funnier, Lar, Rubik, Sun and myself. Rubik clarifies this in
1145 which is flimsy at best. Not a fan of this series of posts, especially considering Rag's Lover claim.
1303 This is Rubik's first post after Rag initially claims Mason. I see Rubik's reasons supporting revealing who the Mason partner is, but it seems like a lot of words for something that could have been said in 2 or 3 sentences. Overexplaining is a scum tactic I've used several times and, as a whole, I'm not a big fan of this post from Rubik.
1319 The way this post is worded, I can read it from either a town standpoint or a scum standpoint, and it makes sense as either. I think I should give Rubik the benefit of the doubt though and say this is a town mindset.
I'm not going to bother going through and linking all the posts from the big mess at what would have been EoD yesterday, but I'll summarize them.
Rubik expressed paranoia regarding the lovers, saying it could be a gambit. On the surface, I don't see anything wrong with being paranoid of the claim, after all Lovers is a relatively safe claim for scumbuds to make. I also noticed Rubik voted for Extension earlier on, before this fiasco started, so I can see that going either way (buying himself more time to come up with some defenses, or just genuinely wanting more time to solve this thing). Voting for Minish instead of Rag is... eh? I mean there were arguably better wagons at the time, though I think it's fair to say none of them were really great. As a whole, looking back at Rubik's posts during that weird situation, I can actually see a lot of town motivation for them. It's true that Rubik wanting an extension so bad when he hadn't contributed much was meh, but his posts at what would have been EoD for the most part read like a townie who is genuinely concerned about the goings on and wants more time to solve. This is mostly based on his tone, but also how hard he fought for an extension (I don't think scum Rubik does that so strongly to save a scumbud, especially since he first voted for Extension before Rag claimed and therefore also before Jinjo was in trouble). If there's anything in this large series of 50 or so posts that I would read as scum motivated, it's when Rubik had asked me to elaborate on what I saw regarding SMS/Lar; I kept it to myself to as not to put either of their possible roles into the open, so asking me to was a little sketch.
Anyway, as a whole, during that craziness surrounding the Lovers claim and the Jinjo wagon/Extension, I read Rubik as town. His posts really give off that desperate townie vibe to me, someone who just genuinely didn't want us to make a hasty decision.
1688 Less than an hour after he Extension is granted, Rubik begins following up on his promise to put in more effort. Admittedly, Deku was a pretty easy ISO to start with, but at least it's content, and more content than he had really given previously.
I am a bit confused though, going from what Rubik said about Deku's analysis of the NKs, specifically regarding Giri, then saying Ex was likely not vigged. With only two players having died in the night, it seems fruitless to think that there might be a third party killer yet, but I guess it's fair? Idk, it's really only the "correct analysis on Giri" part that gets me because I think Giri actually blocking the mafia kill is quite unlikely.
1718 is Rubik's ISO of DawningWinds/CynicalSquid. I do like how it's a fairly unique read, since I feel like most people scum or null read Squiddy boi's readslist while Rubik townread it.
1722 ISO of Poyzin. Pretty easy tbh, Poyzin has done literally nothing.
1743 is Rubik's response to me thanking him for the increase in effort and following through on his promise. I get similar vibes here as I do from #1125 which I linked above. It just seems like an odd thing to say as scum, knowing what's at stake and that he has a good chance of being lynched after 24 hours if he doesn't fully take advantage of the Extension. It just seems so sincere, I get the impression he really is trying to make the best of the time we were given.