Apologies if these summaries are a little difficult to read/not exactly rife with analysis but the purpose, anyway, is to try to compile these instances of interaction and let people draw their own conclusions. These are direct mentions searches so I may have missed a few instances of talking where there weren't direct quotes, unfortunately.
Archer/Shielder:
Archer is very light on mentions of shielder. Questions shielder about saying they have an issue with the game being mechanically complex in
396. They give a scumread of shielder in
574 that is not explained. Archer made that very scummy vote on shielder in
1213. However, when Berserker went to the lengths of defending shielder and I pumped the brakes on a quickvote, they argued with berserker about shielder in
1273 but ultimately unvoted and asked shielder if they were "trolling", seemingly attempting to throw them a line. They also conclude Berserker is townie for defending shielder in
1282, which is a bit weird.
Shielder puts an out of nowhere scumread on Archer with the
576. is weirded out by my master vote on Archer in
672, which would make sense with those prior thoughts, but makes no comment on my unvote.
870 makes a very strange comment about Archer.
1285 argues with Archer. in
1328 they say "this is a pretty vanilla take and my reasoning doesnt differ from other people" as Archer had become the consensus scumread.
I would not say any of this behavior really clears Shielder particularly, in fact given the level of interaction here I would say cross-bussing seems entirely possible.
Archer/Saber:
Archer expressed disagreement with Saber 1's opening strategy in
255, questioned Saber over the signal to noise ratio comment in
285, and explains himself to Saber in
396, saying "I will try to cut down on the fluff if you'd want which should resolve the problem of quote striping."
Saber calls out Archer in
255 for low signal-to-noise ratio. This is shortly after Beast and Moon Cancer both expressed scumreads of Archer. Their reasoning in reply to Archer is that their quote stripes "are a reasonable tactic for instilling a lack of desire to read and re-read the thread, which pairs well with artificial thread inflation." which is a bit strange to say. Saber 2 expresses unease at how easy the vote is in
1495 but does not draw a conclusion
There is not a lot to go on here, but I would give Saber some credit for their early callout of Archer and repetition of their position, and the way Archer responded to them looks like scum attempting to appeal to a townie. I would say they are slightly less likely to be partners.
Archer/Ruler:
In
396 Archer shades replacement Ruler, saying "I'm not a fan of this lazy play, but that would be hypocritical. Just be helpful in the future because this is not really a good first look for you." He mentions ruler as a scumread in the GTH, and in
1221 says "Also, I don't really have a read on ruler, but that means scum."
In
1324 Ruler says "With that said id agree there is a degree of coordination involved in Assassin being mastered and I would have given Archer a ton of points if they stuck to Avenger.". This is the only comment on Archer they make on Archer prior to their flip.
The inactivity from Ruler has hurt a lot which makes this hard to read. I could see Archer distancing from Ruler, or I could see Ruler as a weaker townie that Archer felt they could push for lurking. My gut says the latter but it's not very strong at all. The lack of many interactions is certainly suspicious.
Archer/Rider:
In
175 Archer says "Rider's entrance was somewhat lacking". In
241, Archer says Rider could be town for having an unseen progression on Lancer. When called out by Rider, he answers them in
396, and that is about it in terms of their interactions.
Rider initially starts off by saying he likes Archer in
217, but does not have an explanation. When Moon Cancer calls them scum, they say "I very much am interested to hear words pertaining to this subject" in
238. In
308 they reverse their read on Archer, saying "
241 made me 180 and march right down scumfuck lane with that one." They elaborate on this in
314, calling it fluffy and criticizing Archers reasons for townreading them in the quotestripe post. They question archer twice later in that post about certain things they've said. Asks Caster why they're "degrading on Archer" in
330. Then mentions Archer as a "must-die" read in
1109.
I would not say there is anything in the interactions between the two here that makes them incompatible, Rider did call Archer as scum but was not among the earliest or the loudest voices to do so. The slightly too early townread and reversal on Archer is suspect.
Archer/Lancer:
In
113 Lancer asks Archer why he's voting for them, and asks if he's scumreading Berserker. They clarified in
124 interpreting the "busywork" comment as being directed at Berserker. In
407 disagrees with archer about his interpretation of alter ego talking about how they'd been treating moon cancer as town, and asks some probing questions. In
509 Lancer says "Archer I would probably lazily have my vote on if this were a normal phase." Makes further criticism of Archer in
512, saying "Archer, you mention a lot of posts (ex Alter Ego's) and with Moon Cancer with your
469 that you say feel like busywork. But a lot of your own comments are also just neutral questions or statements. Like, in
433 you just say "good point" to something. What's the difference between scummy busywork and just casually saying words?" The sequence in
1015/
1019/
1022 is a bit funny as part of their read flip on me is my reaction test vote on Archer. Do they do that as a teammate? Would be sort of on the nose. They follow up on Archer asking them to respond to their earlier question in
1134 - I do like the persistence here, and think a partner would be less likely to ignore a partner's questioning. In
1269 mentions archer continuing to ignore him. Continues to press Archer for an explanation in
1279 but says they like his answer in
1284. Asks Archer why he townreads them in
1289, and that's it.
Archer 'votes' Lancer on the first page in
13 as an RVS-ish kind of vote. Gives an explanation of "Mostly joke as you were last poster, but also because partial tone. I'll keep it here until I find someone better." in response to Lancer's question in
120. Criticizes Lancer for calling Alter Ego scum without reasons in
188, saying "I really don't see the point in calling random people scum and town without at least outlining reasons. That just makes me think scum trying to look good." Later in that post, commenting on me attacking Lancer, says "Overall, I like Assassin more than Lancer here, but that doesn't mean Lancer is scum." Responds to Lancer's questioning in
433. He actually answers Lancer about his scumhunting in
1282 in a pretty waffly way.
There's some things in here I like, but also some I don't like, and I wouldn't say any of it is clearing but the way Lancer pestered Archer and got ignored for some time is slightly town, given how we saw Archer clam up under pressure it is possible to give Lancer towncred here although the end result of his questioning is a bit disappointing.
Archer/Moon Cancer
:
After being accused of being scum by Moon Cancer, he replies with "Well I'm not" in
241. Think this sort of blunt protest is much more likely to come from scum to a town. Asks Moon to explain their read in
396. Asks again in
433 and a continued "it's not me" protest at the end. Then in
469 says Moon Cancer saying they might do a meta-dive on me "sounds like something scum would say.", explaining that it felt "showy" in
489. Names Moon Cancer as a scumread in
574. Seems a clear-cut case of OMGUS-ing a townie who had caught him. Jokingly calls a Moon Cancer post a "scumslip" in
659. Interestingly, lists her as town in GTH, defends her from Berserker in
1273. Defends himself to moon cancer in
1430.
Moon cancer fairly persistently called Archer scum, starting in
237, which may be the first instance of someone calling him out. Gets excited by Beast calling Archer and Alter Ego scum in
245, says to read them in double-iso in
261. Says it's about how Archer is talking to Alter Ego in
273. Does feel like the sort of "eureka" moment a townsperson would have. More mentions of archer is scum in
432 467 493. Gives a "heh" in
575 in response to archer naming two town reads and two scum reads. Asks archer if me and alter ego are still his only townreads in
981. Asks the question about there being zero resistance to shielder and archer being gone, and what it means for the remaining scum in
1119. Says they haven't thought about Archer since writing him off as scum in the master selection phase in
1387.
Moon Cancer is very unlikely to be a teammate of Archer, I would say. The push is persistent enough and Archer's response to it looks like caught scum, not teammate being bussed.
Archer/Caster:
Archer converses with Caster a few times in
188/
190, and is mostly passive in response to the "weak shit" from Caster in
253. in
282 Archer says "I don't think your sense of urgency reads natural." to Caster's vote on Foreigner, which is an odd comment to make. Explains that it was "weird tone" in
396, gives a "hmm" in response to saying their read of archer may have degraded. Then agrees with Caster about townreading me in
433. Replies to caster about not mastering foreigner in
605. Again, we return to him saying caster does not "inspire confidence" in
881. and says he would rather vote avenger than caster in
976, says caster is "lower than" foreigner in
982.
I am not going to fault Caster for their GTH town on Archer. However, I find Archer's scumread on Caster to be very notable. In their list of 4 scumreads, Archer named Beast, Ruler, Shielder, and Caster. These were all among the lower activity posters, they might have been slots archer saw as viable pushes to maybe keep him alive long enough to use the strongman. Caster is notable because he does not fit this mold. This is a player who had just gotten to M-2 in the previous phase, surely he would not be seen as someone who was likely to get burned anytime in the near future? I can't help but look at this in combination with the end of the master phase, where Archer seemed to not be concerned about optics and instead with trolling people off my wagon. Archer very much seemed to want to keep away from the Caster wagon, but he stopped from calling him scum outright or trying to stop it from going through. I am perhaps venturing into overthinking, but I could see this being how a scum player would treat a master wagon on a partner.
Only notable interaction after the GTH is to ask caster about berserker defending Shielder in
1350
Caster names Archer as a possible vote in
199, which seems a curiously early read. They then criticize some of Archer's posts in
248, but stop short of an actual read change. In response to Archer's criticism of their "sense of urgency", in
284 they say "I don't have any objections to that actually". In
317 he says "Archer may have degraded a bit since he started quote striping, but this is a popular opinion now." Next interaction with Archer is much later in
1062 where Caster responds to Archer saying he doesn't care if Foreigner wants the upgrade, that he is town. In
1281 he says "I am alarmed that all my scumreads are currently lowposters, but I'm not sure who I'm missing. Archer/Lancer are the most obvious candidates, but I hardly remember why.". Then in
1368 there's this gentle acquiescence to eliminating Archer when I show he's a consensus scumread. Claims archer was town in the GTH "due to math". There's just conspicuously little discussion of Archer from Caster.
I would say Caster looks very plausible as a potential partner for Archer based on interactions. The early townread, the light criticism of each other that went nowhere, and the hesitance to re-evaluate the read when other players began attacking Archer look suspect to me.
