Wake up, everyone.
All eyes opened. The table seemed smaller.
Wheres Terra? Burbeting asked.
Retros only response was a grim shake of his head.
Terrabyte20xx, aka Roytheone, The Night Owl, has been removed from the game.
Welcome!
Now lets see. Your name tag says Terrabyte20xx, but we both know that you are Roytheone, the Night Owl!
You are an Invited Guest. (That means you are aligned with the Town.)
You are possessed by the spirit of the mighty Owl. During the day, you are Elroy Theokoles Onemaus, but at night, your senses are heightened. You are
The Night Owl.
At the end of each night phase, you will be informed if one of your immediate neighbors used or was targeted by a night action. You will not be informed who it was.
If you have any questions, please feel free to PM me.
You win when you have eliminated all threats to the invited guests.
Game Thread is
here
Good luck, Roytheone!
Suddenly, Nin1000 jumped out of his seat. Ty4on! He shouted, reaching out to shake the man seated next to him. Hes not waking up!
Looks like someone had too much to drink. Ourobolus said, a wry smile twisting his mouth.
Ty4on, aka AbsolutBro, the Bro-iest, has had too much to drink, and has been removed from the game.
Welcome!
Now lets see. Your name tag says Ty4on, but we both know that you are AbsolutBro, the Bro-iest!
You are an Invited Guest. (That means you are aligned with the Town.)
You are an Ascetic Bulletproof Serial Killer Cop who is also a Doctor and has an Override
Or at least you would be, but Ynnny told me that role was too imbalanced for this game. So, sorry, I guess youre Ordinary Town.
But, uh, you can still vote! Thats cool, right? Yay Democracy!
You are the Bro-iest! Bro-ficially! Your extreme Bro-ness would make you an amazing Bodyguard, if only we had actually done that role for you in this game!
Oh well.
If you have any questions, please feel free to PM me.
You win when you have eliminated all threats to the invited guests.
Game Thread is
here
Good luck, AbsolutBro!
The doors swung open, and Swamped marched into the room.
Salvapot looked up at her in horror, and sprang from his seat to stand beside Nin. Swamped, no, dont take him, he just had a few too many to drink.
Swamped didnt respond, she simply stared at them.
Burbeting jumped from his seat as well, shouting. All right, Ive had enough! Retro, Swamped, this is insane! Countless people have been murdered!
AbsolutBro jumped up, also shouting We arent investigators! Were idiots who play a stupid game on the internet! We should have called the police when this whole mess started!
When he finished, the silence rang out in the room like a gunshot.
There they stood, together, Nin1000, Burbeting, AbsolutBro, and Salvapot, and in that moment, they realized that Ourobolus, Timeaisis, CzarTim, and Seath had not lifted so much as a finger to help them defend the fallen Ty4on.
Four people stood. Four people sat.
The number of surviving Uninvited Guests is now equal to the number of remaining Invited Guests. The Uninvited have met their win condition.
Retro rose from his chair and walked to where Swamped stood.
I think its time to tell them, he said quietly.
Swamped smiled, Im sorry everyone, for fooling you, but none of what youve experienced over the last several days has been real.
Retro spoke. When Swamped decided to get married, she wanted a simple friends and family only ceremony. But, were such a tight-knit community, she knew all of you would want to come. But youre all
just
so
you.
Everyone exchanged looks.
So Swamped invited you all to a different wedding, but she deliberately left a few of you off of the invite list. Then she left notes under each of the doors of the people who were not invited, and hired her wedding planner, Karkador, to form them into a proper scum team.
Swamped smiled, YesNOnoNOYes, meanwhile, planned a wonderful wedding for me in Carlsbad, on the beach, at sunset.
Thats where I was when I went missing a few days ago, by the way, Retro winked, I was helping Ynnny with the final preparations.
People have died! Salvapot cried.
Who? Swamped asked.
Roy! BSP! Launch! Scrafty! Nin yelled.
Did you see their bodies? Swamped asked.
Nin just spluttered for a moment.
Launchpad! AbsolutBro pointed out. We saw Launchpads body!
Powerful sedative. Retro said, He was asleep.
What abou- Nin began.
Shut up! Burbeting interrupted.
The was a moment of silence.
You did all this, so that we wouldnt come to your wedding? Burb couldnt help but shake his head. You couldnt just ask us not to come?
Swamped gave him a small, sad smile. I wanted you involved, and I thought you would like a game better than a wedding anyway. Forgive me?
And they did.
-----------------------------
EPILOGUE
-----------------------------
Beginnings are easy. Endings are hard. The key is to remember that every ending is a beginning in disguise.
Although Swamped had arranged this game to keep the Gafia community out of her real wedding, she did still want to celebrate with them. Those who had died in the game turned out to not be dead at all, but had been enjoying a nice trip in and around the Los Angeles area. Roy even got to go to Disneyland. After all was said and done, the wedding dinner took place as planned with the members of the Gafia community, Swamped, and her new husband. (Who was very handsome and extremely nice, although no one ever quite caught his name, so he simply became Mr. Swamped.)
At the beginning of the evening, cabot went to the bar and attempted to drink it. Ourobolus, however, took him by the shoulder and steered him away from it.
At another table, Hyperactivity was heard, saying, No one remembers that I helped run Gafia 1? No one?
Kawl simply shrugged. I guess you got to make sure you get your time in the spotlight, man. He toasted Hyper. Ill make sure I get mine next season.
A short distance away, Burbeting and Nin1000 sat together. Nin took a long look at Burb, and said, You know, Burb
Bite your tongue. Dont say it.
We really were the Uninvited.
Nins hospital bills were extensive when he was discharged the next day.
As the evening wore down, various members of the Gafia community stood to give their best wishes to the happy couple. Sorian went on at length, until Scrafty forcibly wrestled the microphone away from him. Upon realizing that she was now in the spotlight, she was suddenly overcome by a very rare case of stage fright, and practically threw the microphone at Retro.
This is what Retro said:
Some things never change in a little community like ours. Making fun of Sorians beanie and his prolific post count will never not be funny. Scrafty will always be proud of her acting skills, her athletic prowess, and her figure. Ourobolus will always be kind of a cantankerous bastard, and Crab will celebrate the start of each new season by going to PoliGAF and getting himself banned for a couple of weeks.
Some things do change, however. Some of our friends no longer sit here with us, and we miss them. Perhaps they grew tired of the game, perhaps life got in their way. Some of us have gotten engaged, or even married. Some of us have children, or are going to have children. Its all part of this messy thing we call life.
In return weve gained new friends, told new stories and come up with new jokes. In the past few months weve come up with Xamxiety. Weve learned that Scrafty is always right and that I am terrible at being scum. Weve overcome the jitters and weve embraced Discord. We have people with us today who werent here a few months ago, and we are grateful to have them. The people who play the games today will design the games tomorrow, and the cycle continues.
Is it strange to put so much value in an online community thats less than two years old? Perhaps so, but I wouldnt have it any other way. In the meantime, I know this is getting sappy. Bear with me, Im almost done.
Ive said this often, so forgive me if youre tired of it, (I can hear Sorians eyes rolling from here,) but Im going to keep saying it for as long as I can, because it will always be true: The games we play will never be as important as the friendships we build while we play them. So many of us share our lives, in and out of the games, with one another. Friendships are built here that cross borders, time zones, and political ideologies.
Friendships like these are like life rafts in the tumultuous seas of life, keeping us afloat until help can come from closer shores. My friends here have calmed me down when I was angry at how a game was going. My friends here celebrated with me when I learned that was going to be a father. My friends here have been that - true friends.
I am grateful for the friendships Ive made, here in Gafia.
Thank you, everyone, for just being you.
THE END