I'm not going to go into too much detail on my D1 reads since as I said looking at D1 as scum or not scum and carrying that over is ********. However I'll bring D1 up again when I've made my decision, obviously.
In the meantime, some general notations of playstyle. I'll be focusing primarily on the confirmed scum here since their behavior on D1 is going to to some degree dictate possible slips in the future in regards to our Recruit.
Cheez - EC almost exclusively defended scumbuddies. He repeatedly and consistently defended Swiss when he was under fire from Tandora and a few others, and this is one of the primary reasons I really wanted to shoot Mad Scummy on N3. There were only two exceptions to this rule; SwordsRBroken and Goomba. In Swords's case, Cheez defended him (after previously suspecting him). I believe he had an ulterior motive here, to preemptively wash his hands of guilt for the lynch -- he ended up voting for Swords and being on his lynch -- and to subtely buddy Soviet Coffee. Goomba, on the other hand, I can't quite figure out. This was in his big post where he was pressured for reads and proceeded to explode his reads into the thread -- he said that he didn't see how Goomba was being "mad aggressive", nor why being aggressive would even be scummy. This was a very safe thing to say, considering he was commenting on an argument that at this point was relevant only to MS and Goomba, and thus a conclusion others had drawn (and even parroted from people like Edreeses).
Cheez has a strong tendency to toss limp softballs to his scumbuddies (Mad Scummy in P147, Sir Bedevere in P196 and P234), but gives true pressure only to townies.
Connections: In his big P234, he says he doesn't have much of a read on Nix, wants him to explain his recent post, and will wait for a reread. In the same post, he softly defends Goomba. In the same post he says that Edrees has had good points in the game, is liking him, but needs to see more.
Mad Scummy - Attacks exclusively townies, but based on D2 I feel he would gladly attack a scumbuddy -- however I think he would only do so, in this game, if there was a specific and tangible gain in it. I don't see him doing it of his own accord and for no reason. This is supported by the level of pressure he exerts on others, despite tossing only softballs at scumbuddies on D1. P357 is the one time he addresses a scumbuddy in a proactive manner, prodding for a stance from Cheez and giving it a slightly jokey tone.
MS (or Swiss) is the type to brazenly admit that he's after a townie and hide in plain sight that way, justifying it in some ***-backwards fashion. He rarely defends anyone whatsoever, and so I again think he'd only do so with a specific and tangible gain in it (buddying, defending a scumbuddy perhaps, whatever).
Connections: He initially says Nix is "efficient" and will catch up quickly, but rescinds this after Nix gets at him in his first post. He then tells Nix to post more content and that a question he posted was dumb. Mad Scummy says he doesn't like Chibo brushing over his uselessness by pointing to someone that was even moreso -- this did refer to Nix, but the fact that he didn't even refer to Nix by name tells me that his post here was more about expressing dislike of Chibo.
Considering this is D1 and a four-man scumteam with a possible fifth would be BS, I feel that Nix is town here and that this sets the tone for how MS is going to interact with him -- taking him down a notch and otherwise calling his uselessness out. This makes me find him to be an unlikely recruit target since Nix is already shaping up to be such a perfect scapegoat with a precedent-backed paper trail that allows Mad Scummy to pursue him without looking like a flipflopper. Plus anyone on that scumteam could probably argue circles around Nix, even in a debate where Nix was clearly in the right. Furthermore, despite getting at MS early on, it was on a weak point, and Nix backs off from that after MS's counterpoint.
From here Nix discusses and addresses exclusively townies, so I think it'd be stupid to recruit him, as he was producing trains of thought and thus possible suspicion on townies, of his own Townie accord. This includes Overswarm, whom Nix got at for leaving his vote on Gordo and yet taking no proactive measures with as much, which could have looked scummy on D2, because Swords was going to flip town. All in all it seems much stronger scum play to leave Nix alone here.
Goomba's tit-for-tat with MS went on for ages. Swiss slowly lost the argument, as Goomba bulldozed his counterpoints and eroded away the logic that initially seemed to be there. In P175 Mad Scummy says he just wanted to know why Goomba denied there was pressure, and that Goomba went aggressive for no reason. Throws back the same level of trash talk and takes Goomba down a notch, then asks Edrees what he thinks of the behavior. I feel he was trying to play the victim subtlely to discredit Goomba and his arguments, which Overswarm had already started to do, and thus this also brushes quite close to parroting as well.
Goomba picks up the tit for tat where it left off in P195, reiterating that he doesn't feel he's been more aggressive than usual, hates having points misconstrued, and doesn't feel he was pressuring Edrees at all. Continues the tit-for-tat, laughs at Sir Bed's idea of him being a "quiet player", and asks to name all the people on the supposed Goomba wagon, accusing him of skimming. Awkwardly, Mad Scummy completely halts this argument. His next post ignores Goomba entirely, and so he prods Praxis, snipes at The_Guide, says Nix may get his thoughts in first (as with Chibo, more in a manner that takes down The_Guide than compliments Nix), and prods Chibo. As far as Mad Scummy is suddenly concerned, the argument never happened. I find that very interesting. Even more interesting is that he never mentions or addresses Goomba again for the rest of D1.
