[12:50:10 AM] Mando 寒山: Well here's my thought process

1. The ARG is different from any other game, like that of a video game or something, in that it's free-flowing. I don't think I've ever seen an ARG get a bad end, I don't think it's done purely because you can't play it over so it needs some sort of payoff. So with that in mind, I'm considering the fact that no matter what, we can't "lose." Things might go a "bad" way for a bit, but they'll boomerang back into moving the plot forward just by the nature of the ARG.

2. With that in mind, I think I'm leaning towards Doug now. He's the most important player in this whole game. He's the alpha, in that this all started with him, and he's the omega in the sense that I think he's the key to the end of it all. I mean, think about it. If we vote for Mason, we might be doing what is right in our minds, but we could end up making everything a lot worse in the long run for ourselves. We might lose avenues that we need. I feel like we need Doug the most. We might like Mason, but how do we know he's the right choice? He could be a planted character from the cult for all we know. We've already seen Doug and Mason's statements contradicting each other. But we haven't seen ANYTHING that conclusively proves one over the other. Everything has been completely ambiguous he said/she said stuff. And I think on that kind of stuff, we really should trust Doug over Mason. I mean, we've known Doug longer and, arguably, far more in depth than we've known Mason. Mason is an agreeable guy, but I think that could be part of the plot against us. Doug really hasn't been able to get in contact with us outside of some very limited circumstances. However, Patrem AND Mason have been able to very frequently communicate with us. I think that's a little suspect. It would only make sense that Doug would be able to talk to us as much as Patrem, but instead we see Mason doing it instead. And at the end of the day, like I said, Doug is the strongest piece of the ARG's over-arching puzzle. Without Doug, we don't have anything. We don't even have Mason.

TL;DR

Doug can survive (AKA progress the ARG) without Mason

But Mason can't do the same without Doug

So I think Doug is the more surefire way to go to get the ARG moving in the right direction.

If we side with Mason, we could sever all good connections we have in getting to the bottom of the ARG, and we'd be risking it all on the fact that we've been CONVINCED to like the guy

But if we side with Doug, the one person we really know more about, we have a good chance of getting a straight shot to the core of the ARG's mysteries.

Anyway, that's my take on it.
[12:51:44 AM] Admiral Desdinova / CircleHunter: I like it
[12:51:59 AM] Admiral Desdinova / CircleHunter: Fuck, man that was really in depth
[12:52:49 AM] Mando 寒山: Yeah, I've been hanging back a bit and thinking on it a lot.

I wanted to make sure that, no matter what choice we make, it's going to be the one that gets us closer to the heart of the matter, even if it seems a bit more difficult to make it.
[12:56:50 AM] Wolfcat: My only reason for voting Mason is because we obviously can't trust Doug right now. But I guess just because we vote Doug, doesn't mean we have to help him reach his goals.
[12:57:22 AM] Wolfcat: If we select Doug's file, we could hinder him with our songs if he ever tries to harm Mason. But then again, new Helper might stop that...
[12:58:20 AM] Wolfcat: I do think that voting Doug would give us more info, though.
[12:58:47 AM] Mando 寒山: Exactly, we have to know how to play both sides.

If we select Mason, we could save him, sure, but what happens if we save him? How can he even help us stop it? If we get into Doug's file, we have a DIRECT line into everything. We can mess with doug, we can poke around, we can get really helpful things. We might even save Mason as well, if he can be trusted.
[12:59:13 AM] Mando 寒山: We don't have to trust whoever's file we choose, we just have to know which file is going to give us the best results
[12:59:42 AM] Wolfcat: Hell, maybe the Song of Healing could even work eventually with Doug's file, and save him.
[12:59:50 AM] Mando 寒山: Exactly
[12:59:54 AM] Admiral Desdinova / CircleHunter: I think I agree
[1:00:32 AM] Mando 寒山: Think about it

If we select Mason's file, all we can hope for is to save mason

But if we select Doug's file, we have a chance to save Doug, save Mason, AND learn more important, more intimate knowledge about the cult
[1:00:47 AM] Mando 寒山: I mean think of everything doug has seen since Mason's left
[1:00:57 AM] Mando 寒山: That's a lot of important info Mason could never give us
[1:01:13 AM] Wolfcat: The GM has been giving us hint after hint that someone isn't who they seem, someone we shouldn't trust. We just have to be very careful after selecting Doug's file.
[1:01:42 AM] Mando 寒山: Yeah that's true. But if we go into it knowing that we don't have to TRUST doug to choose his file, we're in control
[1:01:52 AM] Wolfcat: But are we getting to confident in our powers? Too wrapped up in our own.... hubris?
[1:02:00 AM] Admiral Desdinova / CircleHunter: heheh
[1:02:00 AM] Wolfcat: Ugh nevermind that's something Mugen would say
[1:03:13 AM] Mando 寒山: Ha

And I don't think so

The weird thing is we don't know the extent of what we can do

So far it looks like every move we've made has had some sort of impact

So at the very least, what we're doing now works

And I think that if we applied that, in an educated way, towards Doug's file, we could get our hands around the brain of the moon cult