For the record, visible-in-GNDT Marks when this happened:

Sylphrena: Put
Josh: Sylphrena
Brendan: Put
ais523: Brendan

Somehow, though, Darknight was damaged rather than Put.

One possibility is that there were three M4RK subroutines in the queue pointed at Darknight by players other than Sylphrena and Brendan.

This seems unlikely, though. We know that about 5 hours before the Flushing, there were three subroutines in the queue, total. One of them was a redundant M4RK aimed at Brendan by me; I’d earlier decided that a longer Queue would benefit me, although I’m not 100% sure that was a correct decision, so I sent (several days ago, now) a Subroutine request M4RKing Brendan (so that I’d get my Subroutine slot back faster while still lengthening the queue). Obviously, I have no way to prove this. Thus, either there was a last-minute Subroutine push to get rid of Darknight within the last 5 hours, or I’m lying about my Subroutine choices, or this didn’t happen.

I think a last-minute push is unlikely. The Subroutine that ran for today was a MD1C pointed at Darknight. I think this is most likely to have been a self-MD1C (Bucky would be the next most likely person to have sent it, but is disabled). Darknight, can you confirm/deny this? Thus, nobody who’s at all likely to have aimed at Darknight (he wouldn’t aim at himself) got a Subroutine slot back recently. Thus, in this scenario, someone was intentionally waiting until close to the last minute to swing a Mark onto Darknight. This is not impossible, but it still seems a bit implausible.

By the way, if anyone had a Subroutine in the queue before that Queue-flush that wasn’t M4RK, please say so: this would cut down the number of possibilities for what happened a lot.

The alternative (again, assuming I’m telling the truth about my Subroutine) is that either Sylphrena or Brendan had a private M4RK subroutine overriding their public Mark. This requires much less coordination; if either of them targeted Darknight, they’d only need one (accidental or intentional) confederate to produce the result seen here. This seems like the most reasonable plan to me, as it doesn’t require an extensive conspiracy.

Of course, the follow-up question to this is “which faction would be more likely to want to Disable the injured Darknight”. This is unclear to me, but it’s useful to know that almost certainly, it’s at least one of {Sylphrena, Brendan, ais523} (even if I’ve been lying about my subroutine actions).

I guess, in the hope of clarifying things, I should ask: Sylphrena, Brendan, do either of you want to admit to trying to kill Darknight? And if so, what was your reasoning?

Ow. I had indeed self md1c in hopes that I’d get lucky and clear my injured status first. I had planned on dropping in a mark after but was away from my computer most of the day do to birthday fun (wonderful birthday gift btw you stupid droids lol)

I just have a feeling that Bucky/Brendan is up to NO GOOD. Anyone else feeling that?

not sure how bucky is involved unless he sacked himself to reflect suspisions

It would be a weird play, but as a possible response to the failed Trial it could work. Shoot himself, then immediately canvas and propose as a Demand that all Humans disable themselves, playing off of apathy and Human disengagement?

Either way, Brendan and Bucky have been working together quite clearly since the beginning. It’s possible that Bucky was a human being deceived by Brendan but Bucky strikes me as more of a lead than a follow. It’s also possible that they’re both humans who just found a way to trust each other. Stranger things have happened.

You make it sound so romantic, Josh.

ais523, I actually appreciate this breakdown; I didn’t have a good grasp of how exactly the queue and the GNDT Marks would have interacted to bring about this situation. That said, I think the situation you discard out of hand is actually the MOST likely. Five hours is a pretty good timespan, and from what I can tell it occurred when players on GMT and American time zones would have been awake and available. There’s a very strong incentive to wait until the last minute to submit M4RK routines, since submitting them early risks having one processed to no effect (and subsequently letting its creator get busted by a L0GS).

At any rate, no, I didn’t M4RK Darknight. I don’t think Sylphrena did either, although it’s worth noting that only three players besides Sylphrena had a sub-5 Clearance, and two of them are now out.

I didn’t have any M4RKs in the queue—I hadn’t even seen the text “flush the marks” in any proposals until after the marks had been flushed.

So assuming nobody is lying, three of {_Fox_, Put, Josh, Skju} must have put private M4RKs on Darknight at the last minute. Skju has been quiet recently, so it would require all three of the others to do a last-minute push in order to get Darknight.

Why do you think I am/was cooperating with Brendan?

Well you did mention you’ve been PMing each other…