So, I'll be blunt: I'm not voting Barney unless something dramatic changes. When Austin sent me that PM detailing how my investigation worked (after the fact), I assumed it was because someone targeted me. It's possible that the person who did that targeted me with an RB, that's literally on the list of actions he said would not affect mine. What was also on the list, and what I left off just in case it came up, was Motion Detector, the role that Barney just claimed.
Also, I'll note that the way Austin framed it to me was peculiar. He initially said that it doesn't "count as an active action." Note that he didn't say that the action cannot be prevented (as the Protector role was described) or that it cannot be redirected. Those came afterward. He specifically said that it's not "an active action" first. That suggests a focus on movement rather than one on the use of a specific role to intercede in or otherwise affect mine.
If Austin gets back to me with distinct information, I might change my mind, and I'm still considering other ways to interpret this. This, however:
Either way, it’s not affiliation indicative for Barney. We all know a town roleblocker is SOP. And a cop, with a motion detector, with a tracker.
is not currently one of them. I don't really agree that a town RB is obviously SOP, especially when the role is paired with an investigative role that he would also have to out. I also don't think that scum would actively claim an RB role when there are plenty of other options on the table. I also don't agree that that's overdoing it on the investigative front. We all agreed the Flipped Tracker is low utility. The 1X Cop role granted to someone else via Earth, despite the benefits of it being impossible to RB or redirect, could have just as easily gone to scum and been used against town, so it's got a substantial caveat. Having a Motion Detector in town, which I agree with Barney is a weak informational role, is not at all unbalanced given that information, especially when we know that everyone who has claimed so far and both flips yield dual roles. More informational roles are kind of a given.
What I find harder to believe is that Austin would actively facilitate scum like this by sending me that information after the night actions played out. It's not the best that it came out after the beginning of DP2 to begin with, but it lines up with Barney's telling of events. Maybe Austin would do this, actively affording scum an alibi for their actions that just so happens to include a fake claim that Barney actively used. Right now, I don't buy it.
