And I'm not sure ash would out himself as a 3rd party in your QT. Wasn't he all about exiling confirmed third parties in S1?
FOUND IT (emphasis mine):
Survivor won with mafia, as foretold.
Always, always, always exile claimed 3rd party immediately.
So, tell me again, how ash claimed 3rd party to you?
There was some preliminary talk of game setup, comparison to round 1, then getting into admiral and president roles.
But relating to the 3rd party claim...
He started by expressing interest into the cylon/human species stuff, and I shared that I had some kind of investigative role but didn't know what it did. He then said he needed to figure out who his partner/s was, to be able to connect and coordinate votes to get an extra vote. All he knew was that the other/s was Cylon, and that when he is targeted by a partner, he would be informed. But he wanted to figure out who they might be and signal in game.
Towards the end of D1, I questioned whether he was 3P (since earlier he had denied being scum), and he said yes. He said he had to connect with the partner and outlast a few characters to win, but wouldn't tell me the names of who he had to survive past... I assume they would be flavour-wise strongly against extremists? As far as I know, that extra vote was the only thing available to him to help, though either he or his faction likely had more useful powers.