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Alright, this is a journal of WHO I SNIPED AND WHY, and CLUES AND WHAT THEY MEAN...

But first, you all must know that I am probably the definition of a lurker. I'm almost ALWAYS around my guilds / subscribed threads, always reading threads, mulling over ideas put up in those threads, silently agreeing and / or disagreeing with people, all the while not actually saying a word, or making even the slightest hint that I'm around. I've been lurking around the GCSG since back when it was a thread titled the "GCDSG", participated in the game that moved to the guild, and was lurking since a couple games before that. So I've had some indirect experience with the game. *nods*

In any case, on with the sniped victims!!

I first targeted Newzpop Reporta Tryo Bong because I remembered in previous games I was in, he was annoyingly involved in the game, constantly throwing out ideas, and just generally a name I recognized but didn't know well enough to consider them on either my "good" or "bad" list.

Secondly, I targeted Buzzkid24 because as I was trying to figure out who to snipe next, I was also reading threads about the update (since I tried to send in each new victim as soon after the update as I could), and Buzz' name just kept coming up. So it was almost like a huge sign screaming, "OMG LOOKIT ME, KILL ME!!" because he just so happened to be incredibly active while I was looking for a new target.

Third, Dukes. Why? Because it was originally a big "No, I'm good with where I am, but thanks anyway for offering :3" move, but at the same time, it was much the same as Tyro and Buzz with the familiar name, and posting as I was searching for a new victim. I want to formally apologize right here to Dukes for "using" him, as the case may be...

Fourth, InternalHardDrive because... well just how many people can say they sniped / killed a Gaia-mod? X3 Plus she was acting suspicious (on my part), and I had a slight (and obviously wrong) inkling that she might have been the News Reporter... but she was protected, gosh darn it! But oh well, I rather like IHD, so I was kind of feeling bad about
targeting her...

Fifth, Jeff Jarrett. He was targeted in much the same way as Tyro, Dukes, and Buzz. Just happened to spot his name as I was contemplating a new target. Also, while skimming the members list, it was the name that stuck out to me the most... though I'm guessing that's because it was almost surrounded by colored names, too...

Six, Wendraith. I revived a list of "Possible News Reporters", and Wren just so happened to be one of them... I started working off this list here...

Seven, Inasanemonkey1230. Well... one, her paranoia was both making me laugh quite a bit, but I also felt kind of bad about the suspense she was going through, ESPECIALLY since the whole "killing oldbies" was entirely by coincidence. She was also on my "Possible News Reporters" list.

Eight, Heart Shaped Toastie. She was my last possible News-Reporter lead on the list, and at this point I just... REALLY wanted the News Reporter gone, as anyone might be able to guess would be a murderer's main goal as they try to hide their identity from the world.

Nine, 4lys. I was at a loss for who was the News Reporter, so I went back to "Oh, would you look at who posted right when I was looking for a victim" method... Yup, I pretty much acted like an instinctive predator in this game, just going after whatever movement first caught my eye.

Ten, IHD again! Because she was unsuspicious, and I had to get her out of the game, because that was just one more possible vote against me, and no one suspected her at this point... plus Des and I decided we could make it an RCF-GCSG tradition that we RCF folks who just so happened to be snipers to take out IHD... Ah, the beauty of inside jokes...

Eleven, Sendryl, because she seemed to be COMPLETELY unsuspicious to the entire guild, and having a hard time getting ANYONE to vote for her, and as a sniper I wanted everyone to eventually be out of play... right? So Sendryl it was, since the voters didn't seem to be doing anything about it, at least.

Twelve, Anael de Ezra, because she was once inactive and rejoined the game, thus rendering her utterly unsuspicious, and since my goal is to wipe out as many people as possible it would seem that since she wasn't going to be voted out any time soon, I'd have to do something about her.

Thirteen, iPocky', because I had less than an hour to decide who I was going to snipe because I had a doctor's appointment and had no time to think!

Fourteen, Phrozen Wishes, because whenever I'd search the pages for "Zen" to see if I'd voted or not, it would continuously come up with her name and it was bugging me. In any case it seemed she wasn't too suspicious among voting folks from what I could tell.

Fifteen, Panda Pocky, because she seemed rather unsuspicious and at this point (or any for that matter), I didn't really have any uses for unsuspicious people...

Sixteen, Parking Lot, because every time I saw that name I imagined an old parking lot, like a park-and-ride, at night, with one little street light that doesn't provide much light, and one small person standing under it... I thought it was really funny that I told Mori about this, and he incorporated it into the update, too! It made me laugh quite a bit.

Seventeen, [Cherry.Wine], because she was totally unsuspicious at this point. However, why did it take me so long to kill her? Simply because Roger had informed me that she had some bad luck the last couple of rounds, and asked that I leave her alone as long as possible, so I agreed, seeing as I didn't want her to have a run of bad luck continue and seem non-ceasing.

Eighteen, ~LucasCortez~, because he, too, was considered completely unsuspicious by this point, and nearing the end of the game I needed to start surrounding myself with completely suspicious people. I also didn't kill him earlier in the game because, as was later revealed, HE was actually a SHE, and one of my best internet-buddies of all time, so of course I couldn't just bump them off right at the beginning even if it would have been good stratagy!

Nineteen, Marly-chan, because I needed yet another unsuspicious person, and the name "Marly" had always stuck out to me since several years ago I watched a friend develop a character who had quite a strong impact on my own creations named Marly, plus I was advised by a couple of sources that Marly would be a good next-target. *cough*Marluxia*cough*Des*cough*

Twenty, Merty, because just before I made the decision on this snipe there was a list of three completely unsuspicious people. Me, Merty, and Eikichi Taro Stalth. So I decided, "Great! Three days left, three innocent souls... pick one off each day, or at least make that seem the pattern, and I'll look completely innocent come Judgment Day!"

Twenty-One, Eikichi Taro Stalth, because she was the last unsuspicious person left besides myself, and I really preferred the idea of NOT killing myself. I was originally going to snipe Lingui, but realized at the last minute my plan was to go by that "list of unsuspicious people" made a couple days back, and revised my plan to ETS.


Now onto the clues!

"I am not ~LucasCortez~" - This was my very first clue, which was suggested to me via a friend... I really didn't like using it, but I didn't know what else to do right at the moment, so I sent that in. I did NOT mean for the controversy to erupt around this clue.

"Vivaldi wrote a song about me." - Vivaldi wrote a song, which I will forever loathe because I played it almost EVERY SINGLE DAY in seventh grade... this was, more specifically, the movement "Spring" from "The Four Seasons". I thought this might be a risky clue since Spring was Vivaldi's most famous piece, and since it came from "The Four Seasons" I guessed that people would make an immediate connection to Fall being one of the four... but then I remembered, that particular movement was actually called "Autumn" and one of Vivaldi's least popular songs, so I ran with it!

"I once wore my mother's identity." - When I first joined Gaia, I joined because Roger suggested it, and I joined under the name "Lylach" for two reasons. One, I wanted to try out female role playing since I'm not really used to it, and two, with the avatar system at that time, and out of all of my characters, Lylach was the closest I could match to an avatar. Lylach is, however, in my little world and stories, Zen's mother. I posted about five times with her, on OOC threads (mostly in the General Discussion and / or Chatter Box), and then gave up trying to role play her since she was such a difficulty character to get into.

"I am one of Brutter's brethren" - Belle hit the nail on the head with this one! Brutter is, in fact, from Jak II, and belonging to a species called "lurkers". As stated at the beginning of this, I highly regard myself as a lurker, and I thought Brutter would be a safe character to use this connection with since he had about, what? Five minutes of screen-time, if that?? And he was ONLY shown in Jak II, not in ANY of the other J&D games, not to mention when I speak of NaughtyDog, almost no one seems to know what I'm talking about... But much praise goes to Belle, for recognizing my absolute favorite character of the game!! Great going!!

"sniper = ( 3 + 9 ) = me ≈ Żegota ֶ I save lives ≠ sniper" - Or in other words: sniper = 3 [ March ] + 9 [ = 12 ( December ) ] = me [ when I was born ] ≈ [ almost equals ] Żegota [ therefore ] I save lives [ which is not equal to ] sniper. And Żegota was, in short, something set up underground in Nazi-ruled Poland that saved some 75-thousand Jews from death / unjust prosecution.

"My name is deceitful" - The word "Zen" is supposed to mean calmness, tranquility, being at peace with one's body, mind, soul, and surroundings. However, the character Zen, also the alter-ego I identify with the most out of any of my others (I have around 110 characters, and though not all of them true alter-egos, they all definitely have a little bit of me in them), is anything BUT tranquil, calm, or able to be at peace with anything. He's an Auschwitz PoW, was stolen from his family at a very young age, watched on helplessly as his brother died, is an alcoholic, suffers from PTSD, frequent panic attacks, and so on... So in all honesty, Zen is anything BUT the definition of his name. Another reason that Des gave was that "You wouldn't expect a sniper to be zen".


Extra notes!

First of all, allow me to point this out: Within those who actively participate in the GCSG the ONLY people who I told that I was the sniper was Roger, Uta, and Des. I also told a few other people outside of the GCSG, but they didn't really do anything for me within the game. As for the "underground network", that was all pretty much set up by Roger and Des, the only thing I ever did was review their plans if they were somehow directly relating to me, and snipe. Roger and Des were the ones who targeted people to let flow false clues (or in Chi's case, real ones), suspicious leads, and other various bits of information through other game-players. I NEVER directly contacted ANYONE who was not Roger or Des (except Buzz much later on in the game, but we spoke not of GCSG activity other than who to possibly vote for).

Roger was the one who introduced me to Gaia, and we know one another in real life. So it's a given I'd know him (even if he wasn't actively participating in this game), and that connected me with Uta Arashi through an RP he was actively a part of, and after three months of lurking, finally convinced me to post. I also believe that Uta and I began actively pursuing the GCDSG around the same time. Much thanks to Uta and Roger for keeping me on track, out of trouble, temping for me if I couldn't make it to my computer in time, and so forth. They were really my back-up life-lines in case anything unfortunate just so happened to unfortunately happen.

Through Des, and RCF I met Chikorin Moonie, though I am very saddened that she went inactive. ;_;

Desdemona Winchcombe and I met through the GCDSG Reunion Party, actually, and I spotted her RCF banners there. Being a KHII fan, but completely anti-fan-story, I was intrigued and slightly disgusted by these banners... but I liked the art, so I couldn't help but click them, asking myself, "What's so spectacular about fan-based RPs, anyway?" Well, within the next couple of days I filled out some character applications for the hell of it because they were practically on their knees begging for certain characters to be applied for (Xemnas, Xigbar, Roxas), and one of which I just... COULDN'T pass up (Ford Prefect). I was accepted into the guild, and a mod began contacting me for certain "needed" information about some characters I had chosen. After this I started talking with Daye, who introduced me to the other mods, and that's how I met Des, and we weren't on each other's friends lists because we're just... lazy like that.

It is entirely true that throughout the game, almost from the start, Des knew I was the sniper and was helping me. Uta and Roger were the ONLY others who knew from what I said to anyone that I was the sniper, though I accidentally let a crucial clue slip to Chi, and tried desperately to cover my tracks... but I think she was still mondo-suspicious. Des was my face and voice to the other GCD'ers, and it seemed that some of the GCD'ers used her as a connection line back to me as well, which was quite fun. Des also helped A LOT with my clues! I came up with the concepts by myself, but Des was a huge contributor in ideas and she helped me word my clues. I did, however, come up with the math equation entirely by myself! That one was a lot of fun, and a lot of copy / pasting from the character map! I must thank Des for being my mask, and my fellow conceptualizer in this game, it was a great help, and very fun to still have a connection to the GCD'ers and still be able to communicate with them without exposing myself.

As for the Dukes thing? I was criticizing that I didn't trust him, but was tempted to take up his offer just to see how things went, but I was REALLY timid about openly exposing myself to him. So Des did the work, instead, though leaving any important decisions to dangle until I came back to relay my feelings about the situation. I feel that, had Labtech 103 not had such an unfortunate and abrupt end to his crazed killing career, Dukes would have been a great asset in the long run... but I still don't know if I can truly hold to that opinion. I would also like, particularly Dukes to know, that if I had been informed of the Crazed Killers identity, I would NOT have done ANYTHING to harm him unless there was I was absolutely certain he would become a liability.

For Buzz' Gaiaversary I bought him a pair of gloves, and left a comment on his profile. When I responded I merely said, "It was the least I could do" though I was extremely tempted to add, "You know, after I bumped you off in the second round, and all..." but that would’ve totally given me away, sooo~... yeah.

Nearing the end of the game Monkey made a thread title "It might be Zen..." Well... she was right, but for the completely wrong reasons. I'm never active around threads that are new to me, though I was a part of the GCDSG when it went from a thread to a guild, therefore had quite a bit of time to get used to the company kept in the Sniper Game. I only began posting actively because I was finally comfortable in my environment, but I still mainly lurked (and will continue to do so) because that is where I am comfortable - in the background occasionally throwing in my opinion here or there. Not to mention that when I'm not in a game, I find very few reasons why I should interact with anyone. However, I must also say that I tried to stay as neutral as possible - never throwing the blame on or away from anyone, but rather trying to help refine certain thought processes without giving someone enough wisdom to single me out. I believe that regardless of having a position in this game or not, I still would have behaved in the same manner (that is, to start posting a little more often than I used to).

On a final note, I continuously found it quite funny that you people were dealing with a kind, honest, and honorable (some words used to describe me along the way by various GCD'ers) sniper, and yet being so skeptical and accusing... Ah, that was always worth a good laugh. I felt I was the perfect sniper because nobody would even FATHOM the idea of a decent-natured sniper...


Thanks a lot for the great game, everyone! Let's do it again some time, eh? You're all totally AWESOME.

Winter is awesome, Mori. I thank DDR for introducing me to it.

And I read the WHOLE thing.

Wewt for me and the comic.

heart s for Monkey.

It was such a silly conversation... I was just so shocked that you shot her, and then I couldn't think of any other response except, "D:". sweatdrop

Damn right you cross that out. ninja

*hides rifle*

Well, first he wasn't online, and then he was tired, so I was bugging him, and then he did.

4laugh

Great job Zen. Especially with those clues. Congrats on winning! heart

Buzz was annoyed with Uta? gonk
Was it because Uta was stressed and thus got mad at you for suspecting me when there was clear evidence it wasn't me?

///+ Buzz Bro... +///

maybe ninja

but only because you weren't stressed about me saying it was you, but were all "GRRRR outlet for my anger"

///+

...Blue+///