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  • Locked thread
Radian Angle
Oct 29, 2012

Aumanor posted:

Also, some cynical part of my brain is 90% sure that if we picked betray here Ten would ally, and if that turns out to be true I'll be very, very disappointed with the game.

Indeterminism is one of the things I like about this game.
T's a rare thing in time travel stories.

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Kemix
Dec 1, 2013

Because change

Artix posted:

Six months seems a little generous, don't you think? Gonna say closer to eight or nine myself.

Calling it now. Another year + before the LP is done.

Fedule
Mar 27, 2010


No one left uncured.
I got you.
VLR OST: [Eeriness]



Listen in: [English/Japanese]


Quark had nothing to do with this. I made the vote.


Grandpa...


All right, fine!
Why'd you break your promise, Tenmyouji!?


I only promised you one thing:
We wouldn't open the number nine door even if we got 9 points.


...What?
So...you're not going to leave?


Not what I said.
Of course we're going to leave.


What...?


Look.
See Clover over there?


Wh-What?!







VLR OST: [Consternation]




She's...


That bitch!


Wait, Quark and Tenmyouji have—



The words were barely out of her mouth when Tenmyouji and Quark ran past.




No! Goddamnit!




Are you really going to leave...?




But why?


I'm going to go call the others...
So we can capture Zero Sr.




Yeah. Sorry about that.


Sorry everybody.


...
...


So, Sigma... Happy?
I kept my promise.
Clover opened the door, not me.


Like hell I'm happy!
That's some shady poo poo, Tenmyouji!


If you say so.
I have to get out of here, and that's that.
He's gotta pay for what he's done.


"He"...?


Zero.


You mean you know who Zero Sr. is?!


Yeah. No point keeping it a secret now, I suppose.




What?!




The number nine door has been opened.
It will remain open for 9 seconds.




Right...

[Music fades out]


Oh! Wait!
This is for you, Mr. Sigma!



Quark held something out.
I looked down to see two pieces of folded paper.




What is this...?


It's a letter.
I wrote it in the director's office before the AB Game.


...


I wanted to tell you what kind of guy Grandpa is...


So... Read it, okay?



He pressed it into my hand.




See you later, Mr. Sigma.



Then he turned and ran toward the door, Tenmyouji and Clover following in his footsteps.

I was so surprised by the letter that I didn't even try to stop them. Before I could think of anything to say...


See you.


Goodbye...




The number nine door has closed.
This ends the Nonary Game.
Thank you for your participation.
As the game is over, all doors other than the number nine door have been unlocked.
Escape is not possible.
Please enjoy your stay.


...
...




All we can do now is hope they bring help back.


Indeed...


I agree.


...
...



I looked down at Quark's letter, and slowly unfolded it.

His handwriting was still slightly uneven, but he'd filled both pages with writing. I began to read.

Fedule
Mar 27, 2010


No one left uncured.
I got you.




VLR OST: [Confession]

It was a really stormy day when he found me. He said the rain was coming down so hard it almost hurt, but somehow he managed to hear a baby crying. I guess I must have been crying pretty loud.

He took me home and did his best to raise me, but he'd never been married or had a kid before, so I think it was really hard for him. He couldn't figure out how to mix the formula, so he was always carrying the directions around with him. Also, I guess I was a pretty picky eater, so if he didn't get the water-to-formula ratio just right, I wouldn't eat it. I guess I was kind of a pain, huh?

But he didn't give up, and now here I am. When he found me I was really, really small, and he was worried that I might not make it. That's why he named me Quark. A quark is a really, really small thing, and I was really, really small too.

Grandpa didn't need to worry, though, because it turned out that I was pretty tough. When I was one, he forgot I was sleeping in the bed of his truck, and drove off. I rolled out and went off the back, but I didn't even get scratched. I started walking when I was two, and when he wasn't looking I fell down the stairs. I didn't get hurt then either. When I was three, I got really sick. I had a super high fever for a week, but eventually I got better.

I guess you could say I'm pretty lucky.



Anyway, I didn't really have any more accidents after that, and I was a pretty healthy kid. By the time I was six, I'd started helping Grandpa out with his work.

His job was to gather junk from abandoned buildings. Then he'd fix it up or pull out the useful parts and sell them. There were plenty of abandoned buildings, but finding good stuff in them was hard. You had to know which parts were useful, or you could end up wasting a bunch of time. Every time I'd find something, he'd explain to me what it was, how it was supposed to work, how to fix it, all sorts of things. Usually, though, I just wanted to finish up work so I could go to the theater.

The theater came to our town once a week in a wagon. They'd show old news or movies. I went every single week, but Grandpa only went once in a while, and he'd only go weeks when they showed movies.

Oh, yeah... I didn't know that I'd been adopted until I was seven. One of the other kids on my block told me.

I guess after Grandpa found me, he looked all over town to try and find somebody who'd take me. The kid from my block actually had a mom, and he'd asked her if she would take me too.

I gotta admit, I was pretty shocked when I heard that. There weren't a lot of kids with parents around, so hearing that someone lived with his actual mom was pretty impressive. I was also kind of surprised that Grandpa had tried to get someone else to take me. Did that mean he didn't want me?

The kid who'd told me about Grandpa trying to get rid of me was a real jerk. He was totally spoiled, and he'd brag to everybody about how he had a mom. He liked to come up to me while I was working and say stuff like, "Must be hard not having a mother."

It'd never bothered me before, but after I found out that Grandpa had adopted me, I started to think that maybe he didn't really want me. If I could work on my own, then he could get rid of me. I was scared to know the truth, so I never asked him.

Then one day he took me to a bar in our neighborhood. During the day, of course. He went there sometimes to drink scotch, but I'd never gone before.

When we got in he just walked up to the counter with that grumpy look he has and I thought, "Oh no, he's gonna make me work here..." But I was wrong. I saw him pass something to the bartender, and then he picked me up and set me down on a stool next to the counter. The stool was pretty high, especially for a seven year old kid, and my legs just dangled off of it. It seemed really, really high to me, and I was pretty nervous.



Eventually the bartender came back over with a glass of scotch and another big glass full of something else.

As I looked closer I realized that the second glass was full of some sort of brown liquid with a scoop of ice cream in it.

It took me a minute to realize what it was... A root beer float! I'd never seen one before! I was so surprised!

Root beer was even more expensive than the nicest alcohol in the bar. To me and the other kids it seemed more like an urban legend than a real drink... But there it was, right in front of me.

I stared at the float (I still wasn't sure it was real at that point) and then turned to look at Grandpa. He looked back at me. I didn't know what to do, so I turned to the bartender.

He'd already turned around and moved off, though, so I figured he must have put the glass down in front of me on purpose.

It still didn't seem like it could be real, and I was just staring at it when Grandpa told me to hurry up and drink it before the ice cream melted. His gruff voice sounded like an angel's. "Is this really mine?" He nodded.

Words can't describe how awesome it was. I'd never tasted anything like root beer before. The creamy sweetness of the ice cream made my entire head feel light.

I felt like the luckiest boy in the whole world. That's not an exaggeration, I really thought that. The root beer float was delicious, but what made me even happier was Grandpa. When I looked over at him, he was smiling. I know that's gotta be hard for you to imagine! But he really was. Right then I didn't care whether he'd just found me and adopted me or not.

He'd bought me a root beer float. That made me way luckier than some kid who had a mother but had never tasted root beer.

Of course, after we left the bar he was the first kid I bragged to.

[Music cuts out]



So Grandpa and I were doing pretty good... Until the fight.

I was in a super bad mood that day. I'd torn one of my shoes that morning, and some old drunk guy had yelled at me. All the junk I found was totally useless. The day was almost over, and I was fed up, so I just grabbed some random trash and took it back to the house.

VLR OST: [Blue Bird Lamentation]

When I showed what I'd found to Grandpa, he frowned.

He started going through each thing I'd brought back, explaining why they were all useless.
I got really mad and just yelled, "I don't care!" Then he got mad, and I couldn't take it anymore. So I ran away.



I was pretty upset, and I started thinking that maybe Grandpa had only adopted me so he could raise me to work and make money for him. After a while I went and hid in an abandoned building, but by then I'd started to calm down and think that maybe I should go back and apologize. It had started raining pretty hard, though, so I decided I should wait for it to stop.

...But that was just an excuse. The truth was that I was nervous. Part of me knew I'd done something wrong, but I didn't want to admit it.

The rain didn't stop, though, so I just sat there staring out at the gloomy, gray sky. I imagined Grandpa coming to get me...



It kept raining all night, and he never showed up.

I gave up waiting and decided it was time to go home. I was about halfway there when I heard somebody groaning. At first I thought I should just ignore it and not get involved, but I went over anyway and... It was Grandpa.



He was totally soaked, and I could tell right away that he'd been there for a really long time.

I yelled, and he opened his eyes a little bit. He smiled weakly and said he was glad I was safe.

He'd spent all night out in the rain, looking for me.

I felt awful. Grandpa had been out in the rain looking for me so long that he'd collapsed.

I was horrible. He'd heard me crying in the rain, but I hadn't heard him.

As I ran to get the doctor, I promised whatever god might be listening that if they would only save Grandpa, I'd never ask for another root beer float ever again.

He got a real bad fever, and his temperature wouldn't go down for days. The doctor said that if it kept up, he'd die.

If he died, then I'd be all alone. There wouldn't be anybody left to care about me. The thought of that happening terrified me.



Fortunately I must have passed some of my luck on to Grandpa, because a week later his fever finally broke. I was glad he wasn't going to die, but I was also a little scared. What if he had decided he didn't want a stupid kid like me around anymore?

My plan was to apologize as soon as he woke up, but when the moment came my brain just stopped. Grandpa started to talk, and it took me a minute to realize he was apologizing. I didn't know what to think...



He explained that he was an old man, and that meant he was probably going to die sooner rather than later. He was strict with me because he wanted to make sure I'd be able to make it on my own after he was gone, but maybe he'd been a little too strict.

All of the things I'd worried about had been stupid and selfish. Grandpa cared about me a whole lot. He'd been worried when I ran off, and he'd gone out into the rain to look for me.

I tried to apologize, but when I opened my mouth I just started crying. I don't think I've cried that much since I was a baby.

But he just smiled and patted my head.

I asked him if he'd ever regretted adopting me. His eyes got all wide and he said, "Of course not." He told me that he was looking for a really important lady, and because of that he'd had to give up on pretty much everything else in his life. But when he took me in and started raising me, he felt like he'd gotten some of what he lost back.

That was when I decided I'd stay with him forever.

Even if he said I couldn't.



VLR OST: [Virtue's Last Reward (Piano)]



And that's an ending! Good thing Quark wrote all of that down, otherwise all this might've been for nothing!

...Quark must have pretty compact handwriting, huh.







No, seriously guys, we're on the home stretch. Don't pay any attention to the ending count! It's kinda misleading!

Now...



Where to?



We're filling in more and more of this thing! Anyway, here's our options, which are a lot tidier now that I've removed the fake ones.

cd ~/magenta/ally/blue
After successfully allying with Luna, go through the Blue door with Alice and K

cd ~/yellow/ally/blue/ally/betray
After escaping the Director's Office, betray Tenmyouji and Quark

cd ~/yellow/ally/blue/betray
After escaping the PEC, accept Clover's request and betray Tenmyouji

cd ~/cyan/betray/green
After successfully betraying Alice, reject Alice's suggestion and insist on taking the Green door with Luna and Clover

Fedule fucked around with this message at 23:14 on Jan 18, 2016

Fedule
Mar 27, 2010


No one left uncured.
I got you.
Buggeriffic, forgot the poll. Gimme a sec...

e: fixed; vote away

Fedule fucked around with this message at 23:14 on Jan 18, 2016

legoman727
Mar 13, 2010

by exmarx
CLOVER! :doom:

...So, thanks for not telling us who Zero Sr. is, Junpei. Very rude.

Kinu Nishimura
Apr 24, 2008

SICK LOOT!
Quark's letter is my favorite scene in the game.

Old Man Mozz
Apr 24, 2005

I posted.
my "has any clue what's going on" count is still at 0, but im loving this ride

YoshiOfYellow
Aug 21, 2015

Voted #1 Babysitter in Mushroom Kingdom

alcharagia posted:

Quark's letter is my favorite scene in the game.

Seconded. It's just such a heartwarming thing to read and really puts into perspective why Tenmyouji is so adamant about protecting Quark no matter what, even when it means being a shady dickwad to Sigma.

Now I want a root beer float. :unsmith:

Blinus
Dec 20, 2008
Love Quark's letter so much, one of my favorite scenes in either game. I cried a bit back when I first played it. I ADMIT IT!

I vote we get the two betrays out of the way (voted for betraying Ten and Quark in round 3 first, before the Clover seduction one, that'll be my next vote if my vote here wins).

whitehelm
Apr 20, 2008

Blinus posted:

Love Quark's letter so much, one of my favorite scenes in either game. I cried a bit back when I first played it. I ADMIT IT!

I vote we get the two betrays out of the way (voted for betraying Ten and Quark in round 3 first, before the Clover seduction one, that'll be my next vote if my vote here wins).

You can pick multiple options; I voted for both betrays.

Blinus
Dec 20, 2008

whitehelm posted:

You can pick multiple options; I voted for both betrays.

Didn't know that. Too late, blast. Oh well.

Fedule
Mar 27, 2010


No one left uncured.
I got you.
I think I mentioned this a while back but it can somewhat get lost in time; yes, any vote that isn't a straight Ally/Betray vote, you can vote for as many options as you want.

Explosions
Apr 20, 2015

Fedule posted:


I only promised you one thing:
We wouldn't open the number nine door even if we got 9 points.

brb jumping to a timeline where you get murdered.

remember the 999 ending where you get stab-drowned, brb going to live there forever.

lotus circle
Dec 25, 2012

Jushure Iburu
So don't worry
Going with Magenta/Ally/Blue because we really haven't spent much time with K yet compared to the other characters if I'm right.

Kemix
Dec 1, 2013

Because change
I can't hit the betray option fast enough here, folks.

Super Jay Mann
Nov 6, 2008

Maybe Tenmyouji and Clover planned this in advance, but I find it far more satisfying if he just knew what Clover was going to do because he knows her too well. :allears:

It's crazy to think we're supposedly near the end when we still know so little. I don't know if this game has an equivalent to the Safe Ending where you get 60% of the whole picture before the true ending fills in all the gaps or if everything is just going to be backloaded onto whatever final path we end up on.

theblackw0lf
Apr 15, 2003

"...creating a vision of the sort of society you want to have in miniature"
Magenta/Ally/Blue to spend more time with K

Sternieliscious
Sep 21, 2014

Dynas: Tea warrior
I'm swinging to the betray. While I've been curious about the robot plot since first reading about it I see no way to continue that thread for now. After playing the first game I'm more interested in where the photo Tenny had takes us.

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender

Kemix posted:

I can't hit the betray option fast enough here, folks.

Yep, gotta go with that.

Bruceski
Aug 21, 2007

Live, laugh, kupo!

Heavy neutrino posted:

Which is to say, perhaps six months.

Until the next update.

mandatory lesbian
Dec 18, 2012

Super Jay Mann posted:

Maybe Tenmyouji and Clover planned this in advance, but I find it far more satisfying if he just knew what Clover was going to do because he knows her too well. :allears:

It's crazy to think we're supposedly near the end when we still know so little. I don't know if this game has an equivalent to the Safe Ending where you get 60% of the whole picture before the true ending fills in all the gaps or if everything is just going to be backloaded onto whatever final path we end up on.

basically everytime you hit a plot lock is the safe ending, and op is being dead serious when he says we're near the end, the game's last like 5% is loaded with plot

Fedule
Mar 27, 2010


No one left uncured.
I got you.

Bruceski posted:

Until the next update.

For what it's worth I'm finally out of videogames to distract me (holiday playlist: Asscreed Syndicate, Vanishing of Ethan Carter, The Swapper, Axiom Verge, The Talos Principle, Titan Souls - hey, you guy can rest assured that when I procrastinate I do so at maximum efficiency), at least until The Witness comes out. That's... in a week. Okay, well, it's not nothin'.

Bruceski
Aug 21, 2007

Live, laugh, kupo!

Fedule posted:

For what it's worth I'm finally out of videogames to distract me (holiday playlist: Asscreed Syndicate, Vanishing of Ethan Carter, The Swapper, Axiom Verge, The Talos Principle, Titan Souls - hey, you guy can rest assured that when I procrastinate I do so at maximum efficiency), at least until The Witness comes out. That's... in a week. Okay, well, it's not nothin'.

At least you have good taste.

Casull
Aug 13, 2005

:catstare: :catstare: :catstare:
I vote that we betray the poo poo outta Tenmyoji and Quark. Yeah, Clover will still probably get out and it'll be a bad end either way but I'd like to see what happens anyway.

Lotus Aura
Aug 16, 2009

KNEEL BEFORE THE WICKED KING!

Fedule posted:

That's... in a week. Okay, well, it's not nothin'.

Just finish the LP within the week and no one can complain! :pseudo:

Zoe
Jan 19, 2007
Hair Elf

Casull posted:

I vote that we betray the poo poo outta Tenmyoji and Quark. Yeah, Clover will still probably get out and it'll be a bad end either way but I'd like to see what happens anyway.

I don't even want to see this because I hate Clover so, so much, and how can anyone get too mad at Old Man Junpei after a story like that? :3:

Captain Bravo
Feb 16, 2011

An Emergency Shitpost
has been deployed...

...but experts warn it is
just a drop in the ocean.
Alright, so I've held off on posting my theory as to what's going on, but I feel that the letter seals the deal. The big question, in my mind, is Who is Tenmyoji? It eventually became obvious that he was one of the previous Nonary Game participants, and there were signs heavily pointing towards Junpei... but the letter pretty much confims that it's actually Santa.

Why Santa? For one, it has to be either Santa or Junpei, because the dead lady is Akane. The letter confirms that Quark did not grow up with a Grandma and a Grandpa, Tenmyoji was his only parent. Which means that Tenmyoji's reaction to the dead woman's corpse is because she's the woman he spent his life pursuing until he met Quark.

"Now Captain Bravo," you say, "Wouldn't that imply that Tenmyoji is Junpei? After all, Akane and Santa both escaped at the end of 999." But the fact is, we don't know what actually happened after 999. However, there is one thing we do know.

Junpei knows Alice. He was in the car that picked her up, and he was debriefed at HQ, he knows that she's not All-Ice. Santa doesn't. Tenmyoji confronted Alice about Ice-9 after he realized she had been at the last Nonary game. Santa was privy to the conversations about the frozen corpse and Ice-9. Santa did not meet, or talk to, Alice. So from his perspective, she may very well be that unfrozen egyptian princess. He confronts her with this, claiming that Clover told him, but even leaving aside the fact that Clover had no reason to tell Tenmyoji about the Ice-9 mystery if Ten was actually Junpei he would have known that it was false, and would have no reason to accuse her of it.

And that brings us to the final point, which is that Santa adopts Quark to atone for his inability to protect his sister. Remember, he talked a lot about how he was her Santa Claus, that's where he got his friggin' nickname from. He was unable to save her in the first Nonary game, Junpei had to do that. He was just an accomplice in the second Nonary game, she ran that whole deal. And, if we take my above assumption as correct, she split off from him some time afterwards and he was again alone, unable to protect her as he desperately wished to. Then, he stumbled across Quark, and gets a second chance to be the caretaker he so desperately wished to be. Junpei had no similar compulsion to be a protector, or even if he did it was nowhere near as powerful as Santa's.

So if Akane is the dead woman, how did she end up there? Simple: She's Zero. Everyone keeps saying that Zero Jr. confirmed Zero was a member of the nine participants, but Zero Jr. was addressing everyone in the room. Akane was hiding inside one of the AB rooms. Akane only dies if Sigma and Phi don't pick Alice. What's more, when that happens, the rooms don't shift, implying that whoever killed Akane also moved the rooms around to hide the evidence. That seems like it would imply Alice is the killer, but Alice and Clover both seem in the dark as to who Zero is. What's more, Alice goes over to pick up the blood knife and inspect it, if she stabbed Akane she would have just kept it. No, the reason why choosing Alice results in Akane dying is simple: Without Alice to distract Clover, K cannot sneak away to murder Akane.

Now, again, I know that the hologram in the Director's room seems to implicate Zero as a male. But don't forget, this exact same thing happened in the last game. Guy, in the head honcho's office, fingered as Zero, but actually a Red Herring. What's more, the hologram gives us a disarm code for a bomb. But Zero didn't set the bombs, Dio did. And we know Dio isn't Zero, because he was sent to infiltrate the Nonary game, he wasn't in charge of it. So then who is the man in the hologram? Simple, he's K. Who is loving Junpei.

:psyboom:

K and Akane set the whole thing up. K is the man in the hologram, giving false hints to throw Santa off the scent. Akane doesn't want Santa to find her because she ran off with Junpei to have a life together. Junpei is playing the same role Santa was in the last game, the infiltrator and accomplice who people assume is Zero until the final twist. The only problem is, K actually does have amnesia, meaning he doesn't remember setting this whole thing up with Akane. So when he is left alone by Clover, and explores the AB rooms by opening the top seals, he accidentally confronts Akane and murders her before she can explain. He then moves the rooms to cover up the fact that she is killed, something that doesn't happen in the route where she doesn't die.

So why the Nonary game to begin with? What even is the purpose here? Simple, the purpose is to defuse the bombs. Akane and Junpei were living in the facility, working to create the cure for the virus. Dio breaks in to learn what he can, and then blow it to hell and back. Akane and Junpei realize that the only way to save the facility, and the last hope for humanity, is to run another Nonary game and depend on espers to figure it out. They had already captured Clover, Alice, and Sigma years ago to keep in cold storage as esper aces-in-the-hole. They just had to put Clover into a similar situation so her powers would be able to save the day. The thing they didn't bank on is Clover's powers being subsumed by Sigma. So Junpei would have his memories wiped, to be in the same situation, doubling their chances of success. They contacted Santa, and convinced him that if he signed up and didn't spill the beans they would guarantee a good life and a cure for Quark, so he jumped at the chance. Dio was already in the facility, they just had to knock his rear end out, and that brought them to 7. They tapped a medical researcher who was desperate for a cure, Luna, and constructed the final member as their failsafe, Phi.

Junpei recorded a message with the only password they had been able to deduce, Bomb #1, then locked himself in the suit and did whatever bullshit was required to give him Amnesia. Akane knocks out Dio, brings in Tenmyoji, Quark, and Luna, activates Phi, and defrosts Sigma, Clover, and Alice. Phi and Zero are instructed that no matter what, they must always play their part to the hilt. The danger must be real, to activate the latent esper powers in Sigma, Junpei, and Clover. Even if their actions or inactions doom everyone, they must remain hopeful that one of the other timelines will receive the information needed to succeed. Phi drags everyone into their cells, sits down beside Sigma, and the game begins...

SyntheticPolygon
Dec 20, 2013

Well that betrayal was surprisingly cordial all things considered. Clover and Ten explain why they betrayed and why they're leaving with at least decent reasoning, didn't kill anyone, and do seem to be concerned about those they're leaving behind. And Quark spends the whole time apologising and ends with a pretty sweet story about him and Ten. Honestly, i'm not too mad at anyone right now, but perhaps that's just because this is pretty much exactly what I expected to happen.

Also, maybe i'm forgetting something about what was revealed in an earlier path but it is super loving weird that in Quark's town the movie cinema is on a travelling wagon that comes once a week, that there's only one kid in the whole town that has a mother and that a Root Beer Float is the most absolutely amazing thing ever. It's really strange. Quark hasn't been in too many paths but do we know if he's said anything more about this stuff?

lotus circle
Dec 25, 2012

Jushure Iburu
So don't worry

Super Jay Mann posted:

Maybe Tenmyouji and Clover planned this in advance, but I find it far more satisfying if he just knew what Clover was going to do because he knows her too well. :allears:

It's crazy to think we're supposedly near the end when we still know so little. I don't know if this game has an equivalent to the Safe Ending where you get 60% of the whole picture before the true ending fills in all the gaps or if everything is just going to be backloaded onto whatever final path we end up on.
It's hard to really peg a "Safe End" onto this game I find. With 999 Safe End was the only route necessary to unlock True End. The other routes gave you information about certain characters, but they weren't crucial to finishing the game.

With VLR, I would say every route is necessary to get a full understanding of the plot. Certain routes less than others, but none of them feel superfluous. I would say the only route that comes close to that is Clover's, which is fitting because her presence in the game as a whole is superfluous and only done because she was a fan favorite in 999.

Jagged Jim
Sep 26, 2013

I... I can only look though the window...

SyntheticPolygon posted:

Well that betrayal was surprisingly cordial all things considered. Clover and Ten explain why they betrayed and why they're leaving with at least decent reasoning, didn't kill anyone, and do seem to be concerned about those they're leaving behind. And Quark spends the whole time apologising and ends with a pretty sweet story about him and Ten. Honestly, i'm not too mad at anyone right now, but perhaps that's just because this is pretty much exactly what I expected to happen.

Also, maybe i'm forgetting something about what was revealed in an earlier path but it is super loving weird that in Quark's town the movie cinema is on a travelling wagon that comes once a week, that there's only one kid in the whole town that has a mother and that a Root Beer Float is the most absolutely amazing thing ever. It's really strange. Quark hasn't been in too many paths but do we know if he's said anything more about this stuff?

Root Beer Floats are the most absolutely amazing thing ever. :colbert:

Super Jay Mann
Nov 6, 2008

SyntheticPolygon posted:

Well that betrayal was surprisingly cordial all things considered. Clover and Ten explain why they betrayed and why they're leaving with at least decent reasoning, didn't kill anyone, and do seem to be concerned about those they're leaving behind. And Quark spends the whole time apologising and ends with a pretty sweet story about him and Ten. Honestly, i'm not too mad at anyone right now, but perhaps that's just because this is pretty much exactly what I expected to happen.

Also, maybe i'm forgetting something about what was revealed in an earlier path but it is super loving weird that in Quark's town the movie cinema is on a travelling wagon that comes once a week, that there's only one kid in the whole town that has a mother and that a Root Beer Float is the most absolutely amazing thing ever. It's really strange. Quark hasn't been in too many paths but do we know if he's said anything more about this stuff?

Pretty sure this is a post-Radical-6 world we're talking about here that Quark grew up in. In theory anyway, it's still not at all definite right now when the game is taking place.

Blinus
Dec 20, 2008

Fedule posted:

For what it's worth I'm finally out of videogames to distract me (holiday playlist: Asscreed Syndicate, Vanishing of Ethan Carter, The Swapper, Axiom Verge, The Talos Principle, Titan Souls - hey, you guy can rest assured that when I procrastinate I do so at maximum efficiency), at least until The Witness comes out. That's... in a week. Okay, well, it's not nothin'.

Would it be naive to think that you'll finish before ZE3's release (Which is still just listed as Summer '16)? That'd be great timing.

Lichtenstein
May 31, 2012

It'll make sense, eventually.

Captain Bravo posted:

Alright, so I've held off on posting my theory as to what's going on, but I feel that the letter seals the deal. The big question, in my mind, is Who is Tenmyoji? It eventually became obvious that he was one of the previous Nonary Game participants, and there were signs heavily pointing towards Junpei... but the letter pretty much confims that it's actually Santa.

Why Santa? For one, it has to be either Santa or Junpei, because the dead lady is Akane. The letter confirms that Quark did not grow up with a Grandma and a Grandpa, Tenmyoji was his only parent. Which means that Tenmyoji's reaction to the dead woman's corpse is because she's the woman he spent his life pursuing until he met Quark.

"Now Captain Bravo," you say, "Wouldn't that imply that Tenmyoji is Junpei? After all, Akane and Santa both escaped at the end of 999." But the fact is, we don't know what actually happened after 999. However, there is one thing we do know.

Junpei knows Alice. He was in the car that picked her up, and he was debriefed at HQ, he knows that she's not All-Ice. Santa doesn't. Tenmyoji confronted Alice about Ice-9 after he realized she had been at the last Nonary game. Santa was privy to the conversations about the frozen corpse and Ice-9. Santa did not meet, or talk to, Alice. So from his perspective, she may very well be that unfrozen egyptian princess. He confronts her with this, claiming that Clover told him, but even leaving aside the fact that Clover had no reason to tell Tenmyoji about the Ice-9 mystery if Ten was actually Junpei he would have known that it was false, and would have no reason to accuse her of it.

And that brings us to the final point, which is that Santa adopts Quark to atone for his inability to protect his sister. Remember, he talked a lot about how he was her Santa Claus, that's where he got his friggin' nickname from. He was unable to save her in the first Nonary game, Junpei had to do that. He was just an accomplice in the second Nonary game, she ran that whole deal. And, if we take my above assumption as correct, she split off from him some time afterwards and he was again alone, unable to protect her as he desperately wished to. Then, he stumbled across Quark, and gets a second chance to be the caretaker he so desperately wished to be. Junpei had no similar compulsion to be a protector, or even if he did it was nowhere near as powerful as Santa's.

So if Akane is the dead woman, how did she end up there? Simple: She's Zero. Everyone keeps saying that Zero Jr. confirmed Zero was a member of the nine participants, but Zero Jr. was addressing everyone in the room. Akane was hiding inside one of the AB rooms. Akane only dies if Sigma and Phi don't pick Alice. What's more, when that happens, the rooms don't shift, implying that whoever killed Akane also moved the rooms around to hide the evidence. That seems like it would imply Alice is the killer, but Alice and Clover both seem in the dark as to who Zero is. What's more, Alice goes over to pick up the blood knife and inspect it, if she stabbed Akane she would have just kept it. No, the reason why choosing Alice results in Akane dying is simple: Without Alice to distract Clover, K cannot sneak away to murder Akane.

Now, again, I know that the hologram in the Director's room seems to implicate Zero as a male. But don't forget, this exact same thing happened in the last game. Guy, in the head honcho's office, fingered as Zero, but actually a Red Herring. What's more, the hologram gives us a disarm code for a bomb. But Zero didn't set the bombs, Dio did. And we know Dio isn't Zero, because he was sent to infiltrate the Nonary game, he wasn't in charge of it. So then who is the man in the hologram? Simple, he's K. Who is loving Junpei.

:psyboom:

K and Akane set the whole thing up. K is the man in the hologram, giving false hints to throw Santa off the scent. Akane doesn't want Santa to find her because she ran off with Junpei to have a life together. Junpei is playing the same role Santa was in the last game, the infiltrator and accomplice who people assume is Zero until the final twist. The only problem is, K actually does have amnesia, meaning he doesn't remember setting this whole thing up with Akane. So when he is left alone by Clover, and explores the AB rooms by opening the top seals, he accidentally confronts Akane and murders her before she can explain. He then moves the rooms to cover up the fact that she is killed, something that doesn't happen in the route where she doesn't die.

So why the Nonary game to begin with? What even is the purpose here? Simple, the purpose is to defuse the bombs. Akane and Junpei were living in the facility, working to create the cure for the virus. Dio breaks in to learn what he can, and then blow it to hell and back. Akane and Junpei realize that the only way to save the facility, and the last hope for humanity, is to run another Nonary game and depend on espers to figure it out. They had already captured Clover, Alice, and Sigma years ago to keep in cold storage as esper aces-in-the-hole. They just had to put Clover into a similar situation so her powers would be able to save the day. The thing they didn't bank on is Clover's powers being subsumed by Sigma. So Junpei would have his memories wiped, to be in the same situation, doubling their chances of success. They contacted Santa, and convinced him that if he signed up and didn't spill the beans they would guarantee a good life and a cure for Quark, so he jumped at the chance. Dio was already in the facility, they just had to knock his rear end out, and that brought them to 7. They tapped a medical researcher who was desperate for a cure, Luna, and constructed the final member as their failsafe, Phi.

Junpei recorded a message with the only password they had been able to deduce, Bomb #1, then locked himself in the suit and did whatever bullshit was required to give him Amnesia. Akane knocks out Dio, brings in Tenmyoji, Quark, and Luna, activates Phi, and defrosts Sigma, Clover, and Alice. Phi and Zero are instructed that no matter what, they must always play their part to the hilt. The danger must be real, to activate the latent esper powers in Sigma, Junpei, and Clover. Even if their actions or inactions doom everyone, they must remain hopeful that one of the other timelines will receive the information needed to succeed. Phi drags everyone into their cells, sits down beside Sigma, and the game begins...

So who is the robot?

curiousCat
Sep 23, 2012

Does this look like the face of mercy, kupo?

Lichtenstein posted:

So who is the robot?

Captain Bravo posted:

and constructed the final member as their failsafe, Phi.

Emphasis added.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
Man, I wonder if Ten and Clover have been in cahoots this whole time.

Green Intern
Dec 29, 2008

Loon, Crazy and Laughable

Captain Bravo posted:

Simple, he's K. Who is loving Junpei.

Please, show me your Shipping Chart.

Waffleman_
Jan 20, 2011


I don't wanna I don't wanna I don't wanna I don't wanna!!!

I wanna say we're about half through?

Materant
Jul 22, 2010

see, what you don't understand is he now has

THE MANLIEST MUSTACHE

it defies physics


Waffleman_ posted:

I wanna say we're about half through?

Nah, we've actually got most of the keys to the kingdom at this point. We're just missing a couple crucial bits that'll let us move on.

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Waffleman_
Jan 20, 2011


I don't wanna I don't wanna I don't wanna I don't wanna!!!

Never mind that post, I was phone posting and meant for that to go to the Dangan Ronpa thread.

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