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Huh. Aint's eyes match the twin's pins from the other game. We haven't seen Ancora's eyes open yet, right?
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Oct 15, 2021 21:03
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| # ? Jun 1, 2024 19:18 |
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What the gently caress is going on
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Oct 15, 2021 21:19
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Hey there, Pandora. That room sure looks like a set up for a simulation... though there wouldn't be a reason for said room to exist inside the simulation, so either someone decided to replicate that detail for unclear reasons or it has some other use.
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Oct 15, 2021 21:50
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differentiating posted:Hey there, Pandora. Maybe the Pandora Lux ‘killed’ was a robot?
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Oct 15, 2021 21:51
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Quackles posted:Maybe the Pandora Lux ‘killed’ was a robot? Or maybe she's the real Pandora's twin sister who was killed to send a message to everyone else! ...Nah, that's just stupid.
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Oct 16, 2021 00:15
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Epicmissingno posted:Or maybe she's the real Pandora's twin sister who was killed to send a message to everyone else! I get the distinct feeling Junko didn’t actually like her sister that much.
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Oct 16, 2021 00:32
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 It feels like something went wrong with that route- we missed something important. Let's try that again. Once again, I'm going to skip like 2/3 of the summary for this route, because everything through Gula's execution in the second vote is literally identical. Thus, I'm starting the summary right after Gula's death: After the vote, Tristitia pulls a gun on Luxuria, accusing them of being the mastermind (as their portrait was also switched), but when the others point out Superbia and Ancora's were also switched, he backs off. The group, wary of Tristitia's sudden control of the proceedings, makes their way to the last third of the ward, and splits up to explore. Avaritia and Luxuria both speak to Ancora privately, and with the latter, Ancora forms a plan to ambush Tristitia and knock him out so they can retrieve the firearm; however, when they attempt this plan, it quickly falls apart, leading to Tristitia attempting to shoot Superbia. Ancora pushes her out of the way, but in doing so dooms Luxuria, who was standing behind her. Tristitia is caught offguard by this, long enough for Ancora to tackle him and retrieve the gun. At this point, Invidia appears, revealing he found a room that was meant to be how they escape if they succesfully clear the game, but that because he entered in there pre-emptively it was treated as an 'out of bounds' that failed to kill him due to where he was located. The group splits up so they can power through the last deduction rooms, with Ancora volunteering to be the one solving alone. Because of this, when she enters the room, ME drops the pretense and addresses her directly, stating that the answer to the puzzle has been changed specifically to challenge her. She is asked 'what the keys are', and the answer is revealed to be 'an anagram'. Upon exiting, she waits for the other teams to emerge, briefly discussing what they found in there. Avaritia states that she has a plan- given to her by ME- but that she'll need Tristitia, and only Tristitia, to help her set it up, and the two leave to do so. Invidia, Superbia, and Ancora make small talk for a few minutes, eventually deciding to check up on the other two. The 15 ME-cards they have are placed under one of two bowls, and Tristitia tells Ancora to go into a different room from the others and “use her psychic powers to see what he is doing with the bowls”. He also tells her that he is going to move the cards from the blue bowl to the red bowl, but states that he still needs her to leave and use her powers. She does, heading into a nearby classroom to hack into one of their helmets... BGM: Memini Meminisse Ancora checked the timer: they had ten minutes left, at best. Deciding to roll with it, she left the group, walking back into the original hallway where everything had begun, since she wouldn't see anything of them anymore behind the closed doors. BGM: Metis  This is my cue to use the helmets to spy on them. This feels a little silly, though... But what choice do I have? It'll be over really quickly, anyway. And if all else fails... I guess two people will get shot. For now, I'll be hacking... We're going to be hacking Invidia now.  BGM: Mens Metis  It turns out what Avaritia told us was, in fact, an actual set of directives. Who'dve thought?  Anyway, the answer is: So, to solve this puzzle, you have to reinterpret the directives to make sense; 2X4 is 8, not 6, so it's obviously not an actual equation; as one of the hints tells you, its actual meaning is “six together is equal to double the other four”, or, in other words, the six numbers in the left pool added together has to equal the four numbers in the right pool added together and then doubled/multiplied by two. From there, you sort the numbers in each pool from smallest to greatest.  BGM: Metis  Superbia, Tristitia, and Invidia were together in the middle of the Crossroads. They apparently were discussing about the experiment the horse was conducting.  This is Avaritia's idea, and I think... it might reasonably work. But you're relying on psychic powers! That sounds insane to me! She's not completely wrong. I guess to someone who doesn't know any of this, it sounds completely ludicrous. What do you mean, “someone who doesn't know any of this”?! Are you saying psychic powers are real? You're even loonier than I imagined. Not real so to say, but more... they can be made manifest? If you believe they are real, then they are real. That's stupid. I'm out of here.She walked away from the boys and down the stairs. Invidia shrugged at Tristitia, who returned it in kind. The two boys didn't understand the fuss she was making. It's fine, she doesn't understand. None of them do, really. You don't either, to be fair. No, Ancora has psychic powers, and we can finally prove it. All of my life has been leading up to this. This is the birth of espers- don't you get it? Wait, she's the mastermind behind all this? I could've sworn... No, she's not the mastermind. It's Ava. Wait, what? Wait, how do you know that? How do you know all this stuff about Ava, anyway? And does that mean we have to kill her? You've got it all wrong. The Kill ME game isn't about killing the mastermind, it's about...He took a short pause, uncertain of what he was saying. Suddenly, he had a change in attitude. What were we talking about again? Ava isn't the mastermind, what are you talking about? Something strange is going on here. What the heck is this all about? Well, what's the experiment all about, then? I thought this had the goal to create espers to try and save the world...BGM: Medius We're not in a video game like one of those you've played before.The timer had been advancing. We should call them back- we're almost out of time. Invidia left Tristitia's side, venturing back into the staircase where he met Superbia again. Hey, go tell Ava and Cora that things are fine now, they can come back. It's time. Do I look like a door-to-door salesman to you? No, you look like a lost little girl who has no idea about what's happening. Please. Ugh, fine.She flipped the bird, though the motion was softer than usual, as if she was doing it as a joke. Then she walked away, back to the doors leading into the first hallway they'd been into. The frequencies switched at this moment for Invidia's helmet, causing it to lose connection to Ancora's own. It took a little while, but it eventually re-established itself into the girl's view. BGM: Metis Ancora took a few steps outside the classroom, but stopped in her tracks.   What is it? Is something wrong? No... just that something's really strange, I guess. I don't feel too good about this. I've got a bad feeling about it, if you ask me. I've got a bad feeling about this too. I've got a bad feeling about this too.The girl noticed she was still carrying the shotgun with her. Right, she found it in the room she investigated before... and for some reason, she felt like Avaritia was trustworthy. There was just this part of her that told her... BGM: Memini Meminisse You can trust her. If she doesn't have the shotgun, you'll die. Far from her to argue against her inner voice, she handed the firearm over to a very surprised teacher. The woman waited for a second before reaching for it.  Something in me said, “Ava will need this”. Psychic powers? I don't know.With that done, Ancora and Avaritia stepped forward once again. The timer was coming down on them. Whatever plan Tristitia had in mind, it had better work. Five minutes remained. Okay, hold up.Time stood at a standstill. BGM: Memoria  Or rather, there are multiple choices to make. I need to determine some things before we move on. Namely, first, I need to determine who the traitor is. But that's not all. I also need to determine what happened to my recordings. Someone messed with my recordings. Is that also the traitor's doing? It's time to deduce.It's time for us to try and sus out some of the answers to the mysteries surrounding this game  Note that this is less of a 'you should have the answers by now' thing and closer to a 'based on the information gained, what's the most likely answer?' type of deduction, so don't stress out about not having a solid answer- you aren't supposed to at this point. That said, I've spoiled the answers and reasoning for some of these, for your deducing pleasure.  The first thing that had been out of place was... When we first woke up in that room with Superbia and Invidia, there were a lot of things the group didn't know how to react to. That said, we learned about the helmets from ME (and, you know, we already knew about them ahead of time), and the classroom itself didn't appear to be out of place, besides the puzzles we had to solve. On the other hand, the metal box never came up- almost as if it wasn't supposed to be there. The first thing that was strange was the box. That's right, that box. I don't think that was part of the plan. Did every classroom have a metal box like that? I don't know what's inside, but let's just keep it in mind for now. The one who died was really named... Well, this one's pretty obvious. This question is asking what the “name” of the person who died would have been, if she had lived and made it out- specifically, what My Emptiness moniker would they have to be. Since we're “Ancora”, that means the ninth person that died would be “Pandora”- every other participant is accounted for after leaving the classrooms. That's right. The ninth person was Pandora, and their death is the reason behind the group's confusion. But there's a problem with that idea. Namely, I'm Pandora, but also... That would mean I've personally engineered and planned for myself to die, which isn't the case. Something is fishy about that death. But let's keep it in mind for now, and move onto the third thing. Yet, instead of saying “eight”, ME's recording said... Okay, well, no deduction here, the answer was already stated to us previously. That's right. They said “seven”. That's only possible, as Tristitia pointed out, if it was not a recording because otherwise, they couldn't have known we'd be two down. Even if they'd engineered the death of the third person, and guessed someone would die with the vote, you can't guess those are going to be the only deaths. The person who took over my game must've been... This one is a tricky one, and probably the one people trip up on the most. Again, remember, we're looking for the most likely answer; the answer here is a fake-out; we're meant to give what “role” is missing from the equation- which in this case is the “Ancora”, switched with us before the start of the game and set up to be “Pandora” (and therefore, the answer (again) is “Pandora”, the ninth person). That's right. This means “Pandora” isn't dead. They are the one listed as Pandora who is actually Ancora, switched with me to hide my identity. Let's recapitulate real quick. Something still doesn't add up, though. If they had taken over, why can I still control the game to the extent where I can make someone die? No, wait, there's a problem with that. It was about the fact... Again, no real deduction here It's obvious that the problem is... That's right. Invidia didn't die when I booted the program. It even broadcast the rule breaking. It would be easy to assume it's because the room is “off-limits”; truth be told, it's not. No room here is out of range. It would be stupid to have a room where the connection cuts. That means Pandora- the other Pandora- managed to take over the game and stop it. Let's go over other topics, and see if we can't figure it out. Barring the topic about the one who took over the game, since we can conclude “Pandora” is the traitor... We were supposed to have 39 ME-cards. Instead, right now, we have... This one's also not really a deduction, it just requires you to have been paying attention. There's fifteen ME-cards under one of the bowls in the Crossroads at this moment, along with an additional nine that we put in the machine in the center along with Luxuria after the first vote, which makes twenty-four in total. That's right. We're missing a whole 15 of them, which is unheard of. I don't think it would be possible, even for me, to forget about a little less than half of the required elements to survive the game. By design, 15 of them were omitted by the traitor. They must've taken them...? No, it doesn't add up. This seems deliberate by yet a third party. So we can conclude the plan is to... There's not anything to deduce here, but that's moreso because the other two answers are really obviously wrong That's right. The plan is to use the psychic powers I developed to double the ME-cards, but we both know there are no psychic powers, so this won't work. Yet, there's no choice to humor them. The reason is because... Let's take this as another checkpoint. What can we glean from this? Something in me says... Maybe appearances are deceiving. That's the only thing coming to mind. Either someone isn't what they look like, or someone's using something like... a body double. Something like a twin, perhaps? Is it possible someone has a twin I didn't know about? How did they manage to slip that by me? Who changed a lot in the past hours? This one is also a bit tricky, as it requires you to re-examine everyone's behavior over the course of the game thus far to find anything that stands out. The answer is that there's one person who left a very strong impact on us from the drop, but has since changed considerably as far as their emotions go. This person has also had enough unsupervised time away from the group that they could've been doing, well, anything. I am of course, referring to Superbia. She's been acting surprisingly calm despite her literal boyfriend's death (across all the paths in this part of the flowchart), and she was alone by herself for an extended period of time between the first vote and when we find her in the hallway with Luxuria. That's right. Superbia mellowed out a while ago, didn't she? And she vanished for a while with no supervision. Then again, so did Invidia. However, he still had the ME-card he found before, and I can confirm what he found- there realrly is a room that leads outside. If I remember right, there was also the paper that read 'A FAKE WITH PIGTAILS' back in the very first room. Superbia really freaked out at it... Whatever the case is about the traitor, they had to have fooled me in some fashion since they can use ME and move about unhindered. Something still doesn't quite match up, either. How would the traitor have managed to fool me? The simplest explanation would be... Again, this isn't exactly much of a deduction, we're just expected to use Occam's Razor here- the simplest answer being the most likely correct one. Specifically, that the traitor never actually died That's right. A dummy dead body would explain it, too. That means they only would need to make us believe they died for it to work. Come to think of it... what about the state of the bodies? Are we sure they are even dead? I mean, fine, removing the head is a pretty sure way to kill someone... But if someone faked their death, which body would be the easiest? If it's the one with Gula and Luxuria... Then they would only need to convince two out of nine. But this is still useless, because the group hasn't found all 39 ME-cards. I could shut down the program and save everyone, but not while the traitor is still alive. If they're left alive, then they can just take over, as they've done before with ME's speech and by preventing Invidia from dying.  Well, we know which one it ISN'T. That's right. They'd still need Invidia's ME-card. But why couldn't they just get it themselves? Ah, wait, I already have the answer to that one, don't bother. It's because he was in the other room, wasn't it? He spoke of needing a key to access it. However, there has to be an even bigger reason why they needed to save Invidia. The reason why the traitor HAD to save Invidia is... These are all, technically, possible answers, but we're looking for the simplest explanation, which is is, well... That he might be the traitor. That's right. And he even traded to get the G key, too, I remember that! The G key is the key that unlocks the way out, then. He wouldn't be trading if it wasn't the case. So he traded the A key away... which allowed all of the other locks to come undone because they required the A key. It was Wing A, after all. So his goal was to both get the G key, and trade the A key away. To be honest, that's also very suspicious. No matter how you look at it, Invidia's actions are those of someone who knows more than they let on.BGM: Metis  I think I've narrowed it down to two suspects. With that in mind, who is it, then? If Superbia and Invidia are both suspicious, who is the traitor? Can I even make sure of it one way or the other?
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Oct 17, 2021 22:09
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Hey, uh... the trust level with '????' is at 99%. Huh.
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Oct 17, 2021 22:36
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Does anything interesting happen if we guess wrong on the review our knowledge quiz? Or is it just a But Thou Must where it simply kicks you back and asks the same question again till you get it right? That said, the quiz makes me less convinced there’s one “traitor” and more convinced there are traitors plural, all screwing with the game for their own reasons.
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Oct 17, 2021 22:43
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MagusofStars posted:Does anything interesting happen if we guess wrong on the review our knowledge quiz? Or is it just a But Thou Must where it simply kicks you back and asks the same question again till you get it right? If you get any question wrong you get put on the path for the ending we got last episode.
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Oct 18, 2021 00:14
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Interestingly, while I knew immediately that the one question was referring to Bia, I hadn't thought that much about her personality shift. I figured that she had realized her mortality and, especially now without Ira blindly in her corner, she was playing it a little safer so that she wouldn't be killed immediately. We have info from other routes that calls Ava into question, and there was that weird bit where Vidi knew too much and then suddenly didn't, so that's at least 3 people not behaving the way they should. I feel like Ancora is narrowing down her suspects perhaps a little early here. Good to see the metal box brought up again. I still entirely expect the game to follow in ZE's footsteps with a new node on the flowchart being added all the way to the left, thereby allowing us to open the box without any of the game coming to pass. Lastly, for a truly  theory: what if ME somehow was the traitor, like a rogue AI condemning the members of My Emptiness for their crimes? That's one way for the recordings to be altered in real time (though explains nothing else).
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Oct 18, 2021 02:47
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differentiating posted:I was doubtful of this theory until update 28 and the explicit reference to colorblindness, though I have one change I'd like to posit - if I'm right that Pandora and Ancora are sisters, and you're right that they're G & H in some order, I think Ancora is more likely to be G/Greta than H/Hannah. Hannah was the bossier twin, and therefore the one more likely to actually lead ME while Greta aided on the periphery. I think H was the twin with colorblindness, too, which would rule Ancora out as Hannah. Good point, I realized I had the wrong twin when the colorblindness came up. Greta also has a line about green having once been her favorite color but that no longer being the case, and if I went back to check I imagine she's the one that broke down at the word "hope". I'm pretty sure Invidia is the traitor to my My Emptiness, but I doubt he's the one who usurped the game; I think our Ancora is being used as a proxy mastermind by the real mastermind--Pandora--to draw out and eliminate the traitor. Invidia says that person is Ava, and given that Ancora gets the sudden urge to trust Ava and give her the gun it's worth being suspicious of her, though obviously the we've just been told to suspect Bia as well as a potential victim of a switcheroo. I wonder if Invidia, when he's talking about the cards, is referring to the idea of "God" in the way the previous game used--that is, that as the player we are "God" and what we observe becomes true, therefore he needs to fool our perspective for the duplication to work. Which Bia ruined in the last route by actually swapping the piles, thus ensuring the trick failed.
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Oct 18, 2021 15:25
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 content warning: reference to (previous) attempted sexual assault BGM: Metis It was as if all of those thoughts rapid fired all at once, taking only the span of a single moment. Ancora panted in her helmet, registering all of that information. Avaritia had stopped her movements to inquire on her state. Are you all right, Cora? Yes. Let's... let's keep going. The group seemed surprised when Avaritia came up, too. They looked at each other in turns, noticing the teacher had the shotgun Ancora previously had. However, no one commented on that. Tristitia went straight to business, and understandably so. Based on what you've seen, Cora... Pick a bowl. Any bowl.Ancora briefly paused. Four minutes remaining. She made her choice. I'm picking the cyan bowl. The 15 ME-cards are under that bowl. You said you would switch them, but I saw, you said you didn't switch them in the end! You... saw? I don't know how to call it. I just know. You did nothing to the cyan bowl... That's what you said, and I'm choosing to trust your words. Tristitia's insistence in questioning her was making Ancora grumpy. To not heat up the situation anymore, he acknowledged her request, and lifted the cyan bowl. Underneath were 15 ME-cards. Hah, I was right! You liar! You thought you'd pull a fast one on me, and make fun of me.She spat the words at the horse-boy. He shook his head, just as Superbia took center stage to finally reveal what was bothering her so much. Yeah, he lied, and I guess it was part of the plan. But... I did touch the ME-cards, and the bowls. They're under the red bowl now. Don't be dumb, they're under the cyan bowl. We just checked... Let's check under the red bowl, then, if you're so sure.The wolf offered a solution to quell all disputes in a quick and elegant manner. Tristitia lifted the red bowl, and underneath was... BGM: Mereo Mentis  15 of them, to be precise. While Ancora stood there, dumbstruck, in much of the same state as Superbia, Invidia picked up the ME-cards and counted them in his hands. Yes, that's 15 ME-cards. And since we now have those under the other bowl, too... Wait, wait! Wait, I say. Let me see them.She took the cards from him, and she also threw the bowl away to look at the other ones. She compared them: the two lots of 15 had exactly the same cards. A few of them were used up in both piles, since they'd already served for a vote. But this is... Why? How? No time to explain, and besides, I think it would fly over your head. Right now, we have to do the vote. Wait, we just have to put in the cards, and- Do you know if we fulfilled the other conditions for the Kill ME game, too? Well, no, but...BGM: Membrana Then there's no time to waste! Go!The group woke up from its collective stupor when everyone realized they had approximately one minute of life left. If they did nothing, then they would all perish.  On the way there, Ancora noticed her boot was lighter. Someone had taken the gun she had, and she didn't even notice in her hurry. That's definitely not good. If someone took it, that means they still have a personal agenda beyond winning this game. Quick, put the cards in, you morons!Standing in front of the consoles, everyone looked at each other and upon Superbia's call, they all put the cards in. Then, the timer froze, and ten minutes began counting down. Okay, phew. Ten minutes of respite. What do we do now?. How do we tackle this? Do we even have an idea of what we're going to vote? First, we should determine if the mastermind's dead... Those ME-cards came out of nowhere, and I'm very confused it actually worked. I'd like to live, so we should vote for someone, regardless of who it is. Unless it's you, right? I don't even need to say it, but yes, I'd like to not be the one voted out. But about the mastermind... And the ME-cards...Tristitia was already putting the ME-cards that were spent into the bomb, while everyone else was talking. The cacophony, however, continued, and then two minutes had already vanished into thin air. They can't understand each other. This is going nowhere, right towards an untimely death. Everyone did just that, all of them turning their head over to look at Ancora's outburst. Six minutes! What do we do? Forget the ME-cards, forget the mastermind. Someone has to die, right now, the vote is underway. Right. These ten minutes were bought with someone's life. One of us is a dead man walking, but who? Okay... listen. I know you're going to vote for me, so stop trying to avoid the elephant in the room. I don't... especially want to die, now that we have a way out. Nobody would, but you're the biggest rear end in a top hat of the group, and- Look who's talking! But I'm not here to plead my case. I wanted to say, Bia, you've improved greatly, and I'm glad that's the case. I don't get what's going on with the ME-cards, so... At least, you could explain that, Vidi? Then I'll accept my fate. Basically, it goes like this...As he began talking, Tristitia came nearer to him, to make sure he understood what the wolf was saying clearly. But before he could say anything else, Tristitia suddenly grabbed him from behind and locked the barrel of a revolver against his helmet.  What? Do you always just say “what” when someone says something you don't agree with? No, only when it's loving dumb! Trist... I have a reason for thinking that, but I can't say it right now. Right now, you can vote for Superbia, and kill the mastermind so we can win, or I'll kill Invidia, who is my second suspect. He must've made the same kind of deduction. I have the same suspects in mind.Ancora mulled it over. Superbia watched in slight apprehension. Avaritia still had the shotgun, but Tristitia's stance was unwavering, and it was clear if she made one move to lift it, he would immediately kill Invidia. As for Invidia himself, he remained motionless.  The tense situation didn't resolve itself yet, but all of them were surrounding Tristitia, with Avaritia resting against his console while waiting for the verdict of the situation. I'll need to vote too. Yes. That's fine, but first I want to see all of you vote for Bia. Two of you must do so. It would be in poor taste of me to ask for Bia to vote for herself, so... Cora, Ava? Would you two do the honors?Neither Ancora nor Avaritia wanted to sacrifice Superbia, now that they had made it this far, but they didn't really have a choice. They moved to their consoles and prepared themselves to off the rabbit. BGM: Mercedis Mellitus  Well, that's a little silly. No point in having that then, I guess we'll just go back to the normal view. Some of the equipment can break down since it's not the highest quality stuff, which is what probably happened.The view was switched back. Attaching their helmets to the shotguns trapped the two of them there, and they pushed the button after some hesitation. At first, it looked like they wouldn't, but they ultimately abdicated in favor of Tristitia's demand. After which, he remained true to his word, and he released Invidia. With their helmets stuck there, though, Ancora and Avaritia could do nothing but wait.  He kicked the shotgun away while waiting for them to move over. His gun was aimed at the others this whole time. If anyone stepped out of line, it was over for one of them, and maybe even for the others, too. The timer had already gone past one minute remaining. In only a few seconds, it would be all over if they didn't finish entering in the votes. Fine, then. But I'm not voting for Bia. That's okay. I only need three votes, anyway. With Cora and Ava done... You only need your own vote with them, huh? I hope you burn in hell, you loving pig... It's not me who's the pig. I'm the horse. Maybe not the time, Trist. Whatever. Finally, Tristitia entered his vote in a hurry with five seconds remaining on the clock. The votes registered, and the outcome came. It's no surprise now. Superbia is going to die... which isn't exactly something I'm mad about. After all, she was one of my suspects. With Superbia out of the picture, Invidia remains... Is there a way to kill him without triggering anyone's suspicions? He's the traitor, right? He even admitted it himself. BGM: Mestitior The results flashed on the screens. Tristitia's symbol showed across all of them. Whoops! I switched the portraits so you voted for yourself. What?! No! The portraits! No time, no time! The murderer has to die at the very least!*bang* In a last ditch effort to attain his primary goal, he immediately shot Superbia's helmet, since his console was easily in range of hers, giving him a clean target. In the same moment, the shotgun fired at him and, much like others before, his head was cleanly detached from his body in a rapid explosion. The corpse fell to the ground with a trail of blood coming from the neck. Unfortunately, Superbia collapsed. He got her in the head, so the helmet did its job. After the explosion, the rabbit's body lay motionless in a similar position to Tristitia's. The aftermath of the macabre scene left the three survivors rather flabbergasted. With two bodies, however, the total amount of deaths came up to six. While the moment left the two others in shock, Avaritia was already on the move. Quick! Put the ME-cards into the machine!With this call back to reality, Ancora realized she only had twenty seconds before death. Quickly, she grabbed the ME-cards from around the other consoles and brought them over alongside Avaritia. The two of them put the cards into the contraption. The timer froze when it reached eight seconds remaining. BGM: Medius  But I'm not even sure if Superbia is the usurper. My other possible guess was...But Invidia was nowhere near. He had already left. Where's Vidi? Don't worry about him. He grabbed the keys from the bodies. I think he's gone on ahead to open the way out. He's going to need our keys, too.Ancora cast a glance back to the dead bodies. She couldn't feel much for Tristitia, but it was clear she was feeling something for Superbia. Annoyance? Perhaps. Sadness? Maybe. Superbia might have usurped the game, but she still showed growth. But was she the traitor? It's so... annoying. I can't confirm it. And to hell with growth. If it was a double, then she really didn't. Was it even a double? I can't be sure, that's what's annoying. Go ahead, I'll join you shortly.Ancora wasn't sure. She looked over at the dead bodies, then to the revolver next to Tristitia and the shotgun on the ground not too far off from him, too... Don't worry, I'm not going to touch it. I have no reason to now that we've won. We're the remaining three survivors, right? If you say so...The girl decided to give one final show of trust and leave them aside. Before she left, though, she saw the screens on display; they no longer had Tristitia on them. Instead, they said: “Error: multiple TRUST detected”. BGM: Memini Meminisse Ah, I see. That makes sense now. That's why I'm getting these “visions”. By getting the TRUST value high, the connectivity between two helmets is enhanced. That means once one deactivates, it's capable of communicating with mine. Problem is, when multiple ones die at once, then it's interference upon interference and the communication can't be established. And that's why I knew all these things about them, and why I could tell them about their own selves. When the connection was established, they became a part of my information. That's what people are, right? A bunch of information. Memories, experiences... Everyone is the sum of all of those and nothing else. Existence by osmosis. But enough about that, I'm so tired, Let's go now.BGM: Metis Oh, Cora. Before you go, take these.Before the girl could go, Avaritia gave her two keys: the L and S keys. Make sure you don't lose them on the way there, you'll need all of the keys. Thanks. What are you going to do? Honestly? I kinda have to go to the bathroom. Much like Avaritia had assumed, Invidia had gone further in. Following after him, Ancora stepped through the door. It was a small room, unworthy of mention- just a checkpoint to see if the G key had been gained. The door to the elevator opened. Inside was Invidia, pressing on a button to keep them open for Ancora, since he'd heard her walk by. Finally, she stepped into the elevator. That's when Ancora met with Invidia again, who waved her over to the nearby panel to push every key inside and turn them all. Strangely, the panel only took eight keys, leaving the G key unused.  Where are we going? Outside, I guess. But the exit is on the ground level, and I don't remember an elevator here...BGM: Memini Meminisse That's because this isn't the school you think it is. This is a replica. I figured as much. The question is... how? How does she know this? Could it be... is she the traitor? Nothing to do now but wait. In maybe a minute, something is going to happen, but first, I want you to think clearly about the keys we found. I want you to think about what they mean. You figured it out? Invidia remained eerily silent, listening to what Avaritia was saying. About the keys... They have a lot of letters on them. Specifically, there's a key for all the letters L, I, A, S, P, G, I, T, and A. Two keys come back multiple times. This is an anagram. What can be made with the letters L, I, A, S, P, G, I, T, and A? Is it trying to tell us something? Is that the real purpose of the paper we found way back in the first room? This one's pretty straightforward, but if you haven't figured it out yet, I spoiled the answer:  That's right. You can form the words “A PIGTAILS” with them. And the note said... “A fake with PIGTAILS”. Did it point towards Superbia? Who else had pigtails here? I guess there was Luxuria, too, another good candidate for being “a fake”.BGM: Metis Suddenly, a flashback of something else came through Ancora. As though thinking about Luxuria triggered it, the girl began panting heavily. She held her stomach and Invidia inquisitively grabbed her shoulders. Is something wrong? No... no hope...She held onto the sides of her helmet in a panic. She was having a panic attack regarding Luxuria- real name, Nico Hope. She could “remember” what he tried to do to her. He was a guy. And he tried to “get her”. Calm down! Just... stop thinking about it. BGM: Memini Meminisse Anyway... the keys... the keys... The keys! They're all us! The letters with the keys, they're all representing us. P for Pandora, I for Invidia, T for Tristitia, and so on. But there's one that's not part of the group. It's the A key. The anagram isn't talking about pigtails, it's talking about how “A” is a fake with “PIGTAILS”- the rest of them all. But there are two A keys, just like there's Ancora and Avaritia. What does it mean?But before that question could be answered, Invidia spoke just as the elevator ceased all movements. Are you done with your little talk? Almost. The door will open shortly, now. Follow my lead and you can take off the helmet like this. Alright, let's go then, on your lead.BGM: Metis  It wasn't supposed to come off until we leave this place. What are they doing? Did I make a terrible mistake? Maybe Superbia wasn't a traitor. Maybe I was overthinking it. Occam's Razor... the most likely suspect was Invidia since he previously vanished and did all this weird stuff. Was Avaritia the real traitor, then? Was I played for a fool?The helmets came off.   These things are terrible to wear. Anyway... You like gambling, right, Cora? I don't understand what is happening. It's okay. This door behind us will open at the probability of 288 to 1. Do you feel lucky, Cora? Or should I say, miss Penmill? How do you know my last name?! I know everything about you, miss Penmill. And as for you...Avaritia pointed at her. More specifically, she did so at the helmet itself, grabbing under the jawline before pulling onto the thing's sides. It's time for you to surrender your right to live. I'll see YOU later. That one... that one is meant for me.And then... it was dark again. But as the helmet was removed from Ancora's head, a certain set of directives was triggered to be made manifest. It won't help me now, though. Now I know the directives... but I don't know for which helmet they are. Everything is mixed... or a “melange”, as it were. If only I knew for which helmet they were for... but maybe you know that. Maybe you can help. If you can... you know where to go.  ???? directives obtained.
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Oct 19, 2021 18:49
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Man, this game seems a lot shorter when someone's LPing it. also looks like someone got a glow-up
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Oct 19, 2021 19:02
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Soooo… does that mean Ava is Pandora? Then who’s Ain’tcora? Or is Ava ME, at least? And if Ava disappeared for a moment, how do we know she didn’t swap places with someone else?
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Oct 19, 2021 19:05
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Invidia also looks a hell of a lot like Marco, too.
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Oct 19, 2021 20:35
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Invidia looks 200% like Marco, down to the piercings.... would that make Ava Jasmine?
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Oct 20, 2021 12:53
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Regallion posted:Invidia looks 200% like Marco, down to the piercings.... would that make Ava Jasmine? Unlikely, unless the bit that gave us her real name is lying to us. Honestly there being actual humans under the helmets is way more of a twist than there not being, hahahaha. I wonder...with these mystery directives, can we somehow go back to the very beginning and hack the panda helmet before they're killed? Edit: Also, yeah, Invidia appears to be Marco, or at least someone with the same facial features. ZCKaiser fucked around with this message at 14:20 on Oct 21, 2021 |
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Oct 20, 2021 14:09
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All I'll say is next update's going to be a fun one 
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Oct 20, 2021 21:33
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 The game was giving us a hint as to who those directives belong to when it mentions “melange”, which is the name of one of the segments on the other half of this flowchart split- it's basically just a precaution if you, somehow, manage to get to this part and answer the quiz correctly on your first try without seeing the other path. We've already done the other path, though, so no point in wasting any time- we know who we need to hack. No need to really recap anything, either, since this is all territory we've been over a ton already; we're skipping through the first vote, where Ira gets executed, to the point after finishing the principal's office deduction room with Superbia and Luxuria. The key conversation with Invidia still does not matter. Ancora finds the quiet corner stairwell, Invidia goes out of bounds and “dies”, and we decide to hack someone else....BGM: Metis Right now, I need to hack someone, especially because tensions will be at an all-time high due to someone surrendering their right to live. For now, I'll be hacking... It's Superbia, obviously.  BGM: Mens Metis  Finally, we're back to the easy ones! The solution for this puzzle is: All you gotta do is put the consonants first and then the vowels second. Doesn't matter what order you put em in.  BGM: Medius Ugh! I can't believe I went along with his stupid idea. It's the last time I do something for Vidi, especially if he's loving dead now too. I already have a ME-card... Ancora can find hers on her own. She probably had more luck in her search than me, too.She paused for a moment. Maybe that's a bit harsh. I guess we do need to find all of them... this is totally boring, though. There's nothing in these rooms at all! What's the point of checking this wing again?! You loving moron, going up and dying on me like that without explaining a single thing. She kicked one of the doors in annoyance. In one of her hands was a piece of paper. She unfolded it to read it over again. And what do you mean, “I'm lying to us”? You're lying? And who's “us”? This is so dumb. ”I'm lying to us”? What is this note from Invidia all about?Growing too irritated to contain herself, she tore the paper to bits and threw it in the trash. A few seconds later, she ran into Avaritia and Luxuria who just so happened to come into Wing A. Oh, hey.At first, Superbia had tried to act like she didn't see them, but it became more and more impossible as the two of them closed the distance. Have you found anything so far? No, I didn't find anything, but at least with Vidi gone, we've got all the time in the world! I guess... but there's no point in rejoicing about it. What's the big deal, anyway? Look, I want to be nice and whatever, but it's not like our predicament hasn't been weighing down my mind. We're still going to die if we don't vote in the next hour or so. And honestly, the earlier we vote the better. Do you really want to be nice, or are you just saying that like that? I just... wanted to not be mean for those who are gone. What do they care, anyway? They're gone. It's not like they're going to walk up to me and slap me. As a student, nobody gives a poo poo. In here, you're the same as everyone else. That means you're expendable, according to Pandora. E-expendable? Oh, you guys remember, yeah? Pandora is our leader. Or “leader”, I should say. Never seen her face. Still gave me directives. Hate that, hate it so much. Hate being told what to do. I'm my own girl. You're your own bitch, yes. None of this is any useful. What were you doing before, anyway? Looking around here for a ME-card? Yes. Vidi told you before he croaked? He did. How awfully nice of you, but I don't think you're going to find anything here. This is a waste.Luxuria had remained quiet for a while. She made a sign for Superbia. Clearly, she wanted to talk without Avaritia around. Most likely related to the team? Good idea, for once. We can cover more ground that way. I'll see you two later.The teacher wandered off, leaving the two girls alone. Bia... Next round, vote for me. What? What's the point of that? Why are you... It'll buy you guys more time. It's okay, I'll be fine, I found a way to not get shot so I won't die at all. No, you won't be fine, and you are going to die! But you know, thinking about it, it's not like I care that much. Thanks, I guess. I'll go along. At least it means it's not me who's next. As she walked away, it became clear she was coming towards the corner Ancora was hiding within. The key was still in the lock; if she didn't act quickly, Superbia was going to figure out this door can be opened, and then things could spiral out of control. The simplest solution was to just cut the feed for the time being. From here, we get the same scene as before; Superbia and Ancora talk about how few ME-cards they've found, they rejoin the group where Luxuria is attempting to convince the others to vote for him, and Tristitia pushes the group into preparing to vote... BGM: Membrana We can't keep bickering like this. We need a plan, and we need 39 ME-cards, or everyone dies!Reminding everyone of that fact, Tristitia caused a ripple of panic to spread across the group. Ancora found it a nice way to remind everyone of their current predicament.  Ahh, you're right... we're going to die... Even bigger of a reason to begin at once. That's why we should get the vote over quickly! Just vote for me... Yeah, just, let's just vote, get this over with. But am I okay with this? To have Luxuria die by the vote? Stop with these baseless accusations. They're not too baseless, though...Fortunately for the matter at hand, it seemed that Gula and Luxuria agreed with Ancora. BGM: Metis Huh. Didn't think it would be so easy. If it's what the majority wants... Hey, wait a minute! That's not what we agreed on! What you agreed on? That's duplicitous as gently caress! I am not putting my head in front of that shotgun!Unfortunately for Superbia, Luxuria swiped her ME-card before she could even realize what was going on. The rabbit girl ran after the smaller one, but she was too fast, and soon, the ME-card was in Superbia's console. BGM: Mercedis Mellitus The others had followed the exchange while moving towards their consoles, too, ready to jump in if Superbia didn't cooperate. Shortly after, all ME-cards were in, and Gula and Tristitia were pushing Superbia towards the shotgun.  The insults kept coming as the clock ticked. Everyone took their spot as Superbia gesticulated. She slammed her vote down for someone, though it wouldn't change the ultimate outcome as everyone else was voting for her. Is it fine? I don't know. It feels like this is a mistake, somehow. Something feels extremely amiss with how easily the situation was overturned...But it wasn't like Ancora had all the time in the world, either. She was the last one to vote.  Hey, I wonder what the thing that was overlooked was? I'm sure it's nothing. Anyway, time to definitely and confidently vote for Superbia, the person we are for sure executing here!BGM: Mestitior The board exposed the votes much like before. What happened was surprising...Even though everyone seemingly voted for Superbia, Ancora was the one with five votes. Superbia only had one single vote. What...? Are you all... Did you all set this up?Ancora stared in bewilderment at the results. It was the final thing she would stare at. Oh no, the rest of the group must have banded together, somehow. I knew this was proceeding far too easily. With this outcome, she had surrendered her right to live. I guess I should have been more vigilant. Should have tried to figure what's going on so this didn't happen. Now that it's over, there's no point in sticking around... not that I can, anyway. Alas, it has nothing to do with me anymore. It's time to embrace eternity... and rest for now.   Despite how it may feel, we picked up a vital piece of information during this route that the game didn't draw much attention to. We have everything we need to use it, too, so... it's time to try something new: Ancora continues talking to Invidia in the initial classroom. Everything up until the first vote is same as always, resulting in Ira's execution. Ancora agrees with the rest and immediately gives up on teaming up, and she ends up partnering with Luxuria and Superbia. Ancora explores the principal's office deduction room, and after the three escape and split up to search for ME-cards, Ancora runs into Invidia as he leaves their own deduction room... BGM: Meridianus When Ancora walked by the second door down the hall, she heard a small click. Next, the door came open and, just as quickly, out was Invidia. Oh, hey, Cora. Your group finished, huh? Yeah. Where's Trist? Oh, he's coming. He wanted to examine the room a little bit more. It's not really my stuff, so I decided to leave earlier. I got a ME-card, and I guess your group found two, too. Right, I also got this key.He showed it to Ancora; the teeth had a strange shape, in the form of the letter I.  AI? Yeah, an Artificial Intelligence. I'm kidding, it's mostly because the first one looked like an A, and this one's like an I, see...He scratched his jaw a little, pensive for a moment. To be entirely serious, I don't think I could make an AI, honestly. They're super complex, you know? They're a bit like us in design. An artificial person, created by code, who can think and improve on their own! Yeah... that's a little far-fetched. I dunno if we'll get there for a while. I mean, some people can still barely use the internet without taking over their phone line... But more importantly, about the keys, what do you think they mean, anyway? They have letters on them, right? Whatever it is, it's not possible to solve without all the keys. But asking other people might tip me off about their knowledge of this “game”. Beats me. Okay, listen, this is going to sound a little random, but... Which one do you like most in the group? Huh? What do you mean? Who I... That's sudden! No, no, the group of keys. Which letter do you like most? Oh, you mean that! Um...Ancora chose after a second: she picked...  All the conditions are right for this choice to matter, and we have to say G is our favorite here- even if the results more or less end up the same... I like the G key more, I think. It's kinda familiar, too. Oh, really? That's a bummer. I wanted to trade for it; the A key for your G key. You know, A like Ancora? Well... alright, that's okay by me. I mean, they're just keys, and we don't know what they do, so I don't mind.The two of them traded keys together. Ancora gave her G key away to Invidia, while he gave her his A key. The scene plays out the same after this point. Ancora goes to the corner room, and unlocks it with the A key she received from Invidia. We know for a fact now that the writing on the wall is an anagram Invidia “dies” and Ancora decides to hack Avaritia, though no notable information comes out of doing so. After disconnecting and leaving the corner stairwell, Superbia and Ancora talk about how few ME-cards they've found, they rejoin the group where Luxuria is attempting to convince the others to vote for him, and Tristitia pushes the group into preparing to vote.After giving it some thought, Ancora agrees with the group: they are all going to vote for Luxuria. We already know what the outcome of that will be- it's Avaritia who is executed, not Luxuria. This turn of events is enough to spur Tristitia to pull his gun on the group, promptly killing Luxuria in retaliation. He then kills Superbia, as he knows about the crime she committed- her murder. This leaves Tristitia, Gula, and Ancora, and Tristitia begins threatening Ancora as by process of elimination she's the only one of the three who could be the mastermind (considering Gula's speech patterns and the real time ME messages), even if it makes no sense to him. While he's distracted, Gula attempts to knock Tristitia out, giving Ancora a chance to run... BGM: Membrana Ancora took the chance; she booked it. She ran down the stairs while a gunshot fired. That was his fifth one; he only had one more bullet in that six-chamber revolver. If he could only shoot Gula... or waste his shot...But Ancora's fervent chase didn't last very long. Tristitia caught up to her after she reached the intersection. Having forgotten the door wasn't open yet, she ran towards it and the puzzle pad. That was when he caught up to her. *bang*  I really thought we were going somewhere with this. I guess it was inevitable when all heck breaks loose like this. Still, I can't go yet. I think there's more to do, but do I have a choice? I suppose I don't, unless a miracle happens.  ...      BGM: Metis  By miracle, I was there.  I latched onto the first compatible helmet there was. I don't know whose this is.With the original broken, there was no longer a need to hack into any other helmet. In fact, there was no longer a way to do so at all. I was stuck in this one.
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Oct 21, 2021 20:13
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Oct 21, 2021 20:13
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Calling it now: The ninth person's name is Emily.
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Oct 21, 2021 20:29
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. . . We've never actually been Ancora, have we? Edit: Specifically, we've been riding along in her helmet, and maybe somehow influencing her decisions. But the narration periodically switches between first and third person seemingly--most noticeably, the hacking segments seem to be in first person narration, but whenever something is physically happening to Ancora it's described in third person. So either this game can't keep its tenses straight or, more likely, the narration has never been coming from Ancora. This is why Ancora acts so confused sometimes, and why she's still fully subject to the rules of the game: Ancora is not the mastermind. We, Pandora, riding along in her helmet, are. Double Edit: Also, in the voting segment, didn't it seem like Superbia didn't know the portraits were switched? Maybe there's some merit to the idea that someone swapped and took her place. ZCKaiser fucked around with this message at 14:34 on Oct 22, 2021 |
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Oct 22, 2021 14:16
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 content warning: vague discussion of (intended) sexual assault Before the update, a bit of housekeeping; now that the ruse is officially up, I'm no longer going to use the fake “AncoraThinking” picture of Ancora's helmet Instead, I have a different “dialogue” portrait (that I made myself, this isn't in the game at any point) that I'll be using for now.BGM: Metis This is a little bit of a mess. I'm in Invidia's helmet. Isn't he supposed to be dead? And I've failed too, I see. I can tell this body is the real deal.He was looking towards Ancora's headless corpse. I could tell he was very sad about that fact. As for me, I was having issues with my own sadness over it; namely, I didn't feel anything.  I wonder that too. Right now, I'm not in a position where I can go spy on them. For once, I feel powerless, and it is not fun. Granted, none of this has been fun. ME, locate subjects T-2 and G-2. As soon as Invidia spoke those words, ME appeared on the screen of his vision. A map was presented with the dots of the subjects highlighted onto it. They were on their way to the newer rooms. I guess they solved the puzzle. I'll see ME later.ME disappeared from his vision and he cast one glance towards Avaritia's body as well. There was a slight sense of sorrow, but also determination coming from him. Then he moved away, back down the stairs. I'm not quite sure what is happening here, and why Invidia can summon ME like that. I suppose... he's the traitor, then? I guess this is the most perfect way to confirm it. There's some kind of irony in the fact I'm in his helmet of all things.On the way to the duo, Invidia did not encounter anything strange. Upon meeting with the others, he happened to arrive in the middle of a rather heated exchange. BGM: Medius  We require no fewer than three gatherings of individuals in order to unearth our leftover keys to freedom! We can solve the last rooms on our own, since we have the time now... The time? The time?! It is yet limited, you insensitive and duplicitous buffoon! At the sixth, we shall duly perish. In your ignorance, you've signed our death warrants! What is going on here?The two of them interrupted their exchange to quizzically look at Invidia. It was as if they didn't recognize him, or perhaps they didn't trust in the fact he really was there. After all, he should have died already. Yes, I know, I'm back and things don't look too great. I still have my ME-card, and I got another one from the room I explored. It was the exit. No, it's locked. We need those keys.He pulled out his I key to show it to the others. And we also need to do a few other things, but I saw the bodies on the way here. I guess you already took care of that? Yeah, but now I'm feeling like we should have just waited a little... Of course we should have “just waited a little”! We're two, now three to explore these leftover rooms! I am still in control of my temper, but it is running at a modicum of its usual threshold! All the more a reason not to eternalize here. What's the time looking like? It's five past the hour. No problem. Huh? So what if it's five past the hour? Then we should hurry. We have three rooms to solve, remember? That means we need to spend less than 20 minutes on all of them. That is correct. I propose we take the immediate door on the right first.The three of them forgot their previous anguish in favor of remaining alive together. Despite that, Tristitia seemed to still have a problem with Invidia, but he dared not bring it up yet. They moved swiftly through the set of doors and then through the hallway.  I remember this room. Huh...? Yeah, I remember this room. It was one of the weird rooms that weren't like I remembered them. But I've never been here. Good, we'll need all the help we can get.Invidia spoke after the two others had already left to explore the room. The more he spoke, the more I had the feeling he was talking to me sometimes, but that's impossible. At 39 seconds, the door locked. BGM: Mendosus ME, bypass this introduction.ME did not appear to give them their question. Tristitia and Gula panicked a little, figuring out something was wrong with ME's absence.  I don't think we'll need that. We already have help. This will be solved in five minutes flat. What ever could you mean? ME, solve this room. I'm not sure what this all amounts to, but anyway... to solve this room, I remember we have to activate the reactor. First we search the boxes, find the cog, and put it in the main reactor. There will be a key too, which we can use to access the second room. Inside, there will be a tube. Carry it back and connect it between the reactor and the cylinder with acid. Climb the cable and enter 1170 in the keypad. Attach the cable to the fixed panel, and the answer will come on the screen of the reactor.Invidia relayed those thoughts to the others, who ramped up their efforts. Gula took the key and left the room, while Tristitia put the cog inside after removing the grating. Gula connected the tube as instructed and the piece of electronics was siphoned out. With that done, she and Tristitia focused on fixing the panel. Meanwhile, Invidia climbed the cable before any of the others could do so, and reached the panel up there to enter the code onto the keypad. Finally, the group connected the cable and fixed panel together to make the writing on the side of the reactor change. Another small panel opened too, revealing some items inside. Invidia took the key and gave the ME-card to Gula. Only a singular ME-card?! Yeah, I guess so. Anyway, let ME out. Our true enemy is time.Invidia grabbed the bowls from the compartment as the door unlocked. No more than five minutes after they came in, they were already out again. This room hadn't posed any problem or scare whatsoever. BGM: Metis Invidia, I think you're the mastermind. Possibly. But if you kill me now, you're not going to leave alive. ...what are my chances of leaving this place alive, anyway? That's up to you. I never confirmed that. I like to keep you on your toes. But we have more rooms to solve, and very little time, so let's get going.He left the room first. Heading over to the second door- the one right across the hallway- he turned the door knob, only to realize it was locked. We have a problem. It's locked? Can't you unlock it with your mastermind abilities? I told you, I didn't confirm anything about that. No, I can't open this. I'm not Superman, you know, or even Lex.He pushed the bowls aside on the ground, leaving them in the hallway. The others didn't seem to mind, since none of them even knew what the bowls would be used for. Which course of action is proper? I guess we should head to the third of this set of rooms, then. It's been like that since the start. Everything here is some multiple of three...The group set off again, together, towards the southern door. They passed around the corner and made their way to the final door. They opened it and entered only to find...  This must be some storage closet. Look at all the stuff around here! There even is an acquarium. Should we “surrender our right to live” here, we shall spend our slumber with the ichthyofauna.Even though it actually was empty of fishes, it was still full of liquid. The closer they wandered to it, the denser the air seemed to be. Isn't your skin... itchy? A little, I suppose... That's not water. That's acid. The itching is because it's tugging at our skin in the ambient air.BGM: ME Mori   I see you've made your way to this room. That means we're very close to the end. Good. I will not keep you for long. The acid will slowly eat at you. I suspect in perhaps 20 minutes at most, you'll stop being functional. That means you must leave as soon as possible through the second door. 'Who are the two characters in this test?' There is a very important test taking place here. The question is for you to figure out who the two characters involved in this test are. There is also a proper order to the answer, which you must find, too. Please hurry. Your time is limited, and if you die, you'll surrender your right to live. BGM: Membrana The timer had already begun counting. The three of them were in this small room with two minutes on the clock already elapsed. Quick, then. We have to get to the other room fast. Invidia, what do we do? Uh... ME, solve this room. Sorry, cap. I can't do that. I have no idea of what's in this room.Invidia remained silent. That's right. I've never seen it before, so you're on your own. Please enjoy this complimentary disintegration, courtesy of the house. ...Okay, fine. I'll stick with you, but I'm only going to speak my mind when I have an idea. I guess it doesn't work for all the rooms. We're on our own. Search now!The three spread around this mess as best they could, all of them searching through the piles of things furnishing the entire place.  BGM: Mendosus  It doesn't matter what we look at (or if we try to talk to them first), because... With every passing moment, the fewer seconds remain in our existence. I can't find anything here. It's a giant mess! Plush toys, books, computer parts, boxes... It never ends. How can a place be this messy? Yes, this is a little bit of a problem... Let us not waste any modicum of time! Try looking for a key or something like that!No matter how much they searched, it was in vain. They didn't find anything resembling a key. Their range of vision was too small; they could spend another half hour searching through the mess and still find nothing. There's got to be a faster way. Maybe if we... The correct answer is “sort by size”. Removing objects of considerably great size first may, indeed, uncover the dwarfish ones.Using Gula's side to store the large objects, the trio obscured the acquarium after a short while. One object fell into it, splashing some acid around, but nobody was thankfully hit. Ugh, smells like burnt plastic now! I can't wait to get out of here. My olfactory senses are not disturbed. Are you certain? Doesn't matter. Do you see anything special? I can see some things, yes. There are three keys. No, wait, they're just pieces of paper, can't use those as keys. Why would there be paper keys? That makes I, G, and P... That makes “PIG”. Any others?The group searched for more. They found a few, including a torn one. That one's unreadable. What do the others spell out? The letters L, S, T, A, and I are transcribed on them. “LAST”, perhaps? No, the “I” would be missing... Then, “TAILS”? Is that it, then, “PIGTAILS”? But what does that give us? Please, retain your grip upon your equestrian companion and wait for a singular second. This corner contains a box I may open... A small panel housing numbers upon the side allows us to enter a code. What shall it be? We require a rapid escape, our time is diminishing greatly!Already quite a few minutes had passed. Invidia coughed a little, as though the acid was getting to him a little quicker than the others. Ugh... Entering the letters as numbers... That's 169720191219! T-too long... ahh... Yeah, there is... what do we do with it, you think? Just seems... odd to me!What should they do with “PIGTAILS”?  The correct choice here is to subtract. If we subtract “PIG” from “PIGTAILS”, we get only “TAILS”. I wonder if that would work... Keep just... “TAILS”... that's 20191219... If you remove “PIG”... ...it fits, it's the answer!After entering the code in the box's lock, it came open. The side slid to reveal... nothing. Inside the box was nothing. Goddammit! Hey, it's not like you to swear... Can't blame you, though; who the hell made this puzzle? It's hardly even a puzzle! What if you didn't put the anagram correctly? You are correct. Perhaps I should hold back... ugh. Anything inside at all? Scream for help? Help!When Tristitia screamed for help as the box had demanded, the nearby door unlocked on its own. The group did not wait much longer. All three of them lunged at the door, so well that it remained shut, unable to open under the limited space. Guys, stop! We have to make some space!Invidia and Gula threw a bunch of things away and then the door was able to come open. With a strong pull, the three opened the way in and lunged inside, falling down onto the ground in a heap of bodies. The door closed behind them.  He felt the nearby wall and pushed onto the light switch to illuminate the second room of this duo. This place...It was a splendid manor. Or, at least, it looked like a splendid manor's bedroom, but some elements in it were a little off. The door in the bottom corner clearly led outside, and the ornate feeling of the room clashed heavily with it. Let's search this place, too, and then escape before we run out of time. Now we can actually explore unhindered, as well as talk about the bedroom with the others. Let's start with Gula, first. Do you happen to have anything on your mind? Hey, Ula. Tell me, does this room make you feel uncomfortable? Quite. But it is probably not for the same reason as our obese companion. I wouldn't say obese but, well, you like your big words. Anyway, what's the deal then? Obese isn't really a big word or anything. Maybe you're just terrible at words. Nothing happened, before your imaginative mind leaps to sordid conclusions. Yet, it makes me feel both dread and excitement. I would not be able to explain the exact reason. Perhaps it reminds me of our diminutive fallen companion, who had a ferocious private strategy. I see... Is it the same reason you're dressed in a rather, shall we say, inappropriate way? Of course not! What do you mistake me to be, some uncouth harlot? I merely enjoy a bout of tinkering with mechanical devices, nothing more or less, and such activities require focused manual labor. That's just what she was wearing when she was abducted, just like that laser tag outfit, or Superbia's cheerleader uniform. And about Luxuria... better not let her know that he probably planned to do unspeakable things to her. Is there any other topic you care to discuss, in any case? I'll talk to you later. I shall be present here, then.And next, Tristitia.  This room... Did you see that bed? It's outrageous. What about it? Something like that is completely unsightly. You don't need a bed this expensive-looking in order to have a good night of sleep. Anyone who has this bed must have thrown so much money out the window. I would agree, but... well, it's their money; they can do what they want with it. Should they really be allowed to do what they want with it? Next you'll tell me, if they want to buy a guyn, then sure, that's fine too. Says the guy with the gun. Our time's shorter and shorter, but... anything else? Let's go back to the search. Yeah, we should do that.Okay, I'm gonna start on the right side and make my way left. Obviously we don't wanna mess with the door we just came through, so I'll start with the painting on the right wall. Tristitia was messing with this portrait when Invidia came up to him. Don't break it! This kind of portrait is worth a fortune! A small piece of paper fell from it, which he snatched on the fly. Opening it, he read its contents. It's written... “21 24”, which would be a year. 2124? No, it can't be a year, that's way in the future. Maybe the numbers are a set of two letters. Some puzzles had to do with that, after all. It's actually just two letters. Hope they come in handy. And this is a solo portrait, unlike the rest. Does this help? I'm not sure... but maybe the fact the paper also had a square on it might. So those two letters are “U” and “R”. “U” and “R”... They're common internet slang writing to say “you are”, but otherwise I have no idea. Guess I'll just leave most of this room's solving to the others. I'm honestly tired. You can't be tired. Yes I can, and I am tired right now. Here's proof: I just realized it's not 'U” and 'R”. I didn't even know I could make mistakes. We learn things every day.Next, the set of paintings on the right side of the bed.  One of them could move. The lower one slowly slid along the wall, rotating around its central axis until a piece of folded paper fell from it. This says something like... a bunch of numbers? “21 12”, which means by putting them together it's 2112. Or 33? Feels like I'm missing something. They're not numbers; it feels more like they're positions. Positions in what? Not sure, but it goes up to 21 or more. Oh yeah, that makes a lot more sense. Hmm, there's also a triangle next to them.The piece of paper was added to the rest of their meager findings. Next up, the nightstand. This table has a little light on it. I could toy with it, but... The drawer is more interesting. Not touching that anymore. Have, uh, have fun with it. I guess.He disappeared in a hurry, clearly flustered. Invidia shrugged, picking up the object and examining it for a longer moment.  There goes the age rating on this Let's Play.Invidia didn't keep hold of it for too long, instead focusing on the rest of the stuff in the drawer. A few papers were scattered around- nothing really interesting. But there's something else in there. Let's see...He removed a gold key from the drawer before closing it. Just like Tristitia, Invidia didn't stick around, either. The two boys had been in a bit of a hurry to get this over with before Gula came to check on them, avoiding an awkward conversation. I don't understand what they found. What kind of food would you eat with that fork, anyway? I guess someone just tried to be funny by leaving that here? Regardless, before Invidia put it back in, I could see some words were engraved on the curve. They said: “The other drawer is the alphabet, spaces count too.”Great! Anyway, the chandelier has nothing notable, so next is the bed. This is not a normal bed. Isn't it obvious? We're in a special hotel. I thought the stuff around the room would have made that evident. No, I mean, there are no “special” hotels here. Not in this city or in the next. Sure, we have hotels, but those are just that, hotels. They're not “special hotels”. Semantics, then. Look, I get what you're saying. Either way, this is a room for... sex. Which doesn't belong in a school environment. Exactly. Anyway, there's a silver key under a pillow. There's generally never only one key, so this room probably has others. We should find them and get out.He pocketed it, manner of speaking. In truth, he put it with the rest of the group's stuff. From what I know, and if each room corresponds to someone in the group, then this room has got to be Luxuria's. Not to mention, the room attached to this one... It was really messy. He said that in the director's office, didn't he? His room gets really messy, and he's at home there. ….? The director's office?Next up, the other nightstand. This is the left table. I would assume, given the presence of two surfaces associated to the sides of this sleeping aide, this is an enclosed space for two patrons. It wouldn't kill you to say “bed” instead of “sleeping aide”. While talking, she had opened it. Looking inside, Invidia confirmed it before taking it out. I think we're done here, unless we need to take a drawer with us. After all, there's something written inside of this drawer.On the bottom of the drawer was an engraving: “no basket no box no marble” and nothing else. Weird. What do you think it means? I haven't the faintest. What do YOU think it means? No basket, no box, no marble. In other words, it is not a picnic. In other words, it is to starve. Starve while demanding the marble, and die. Is that a quote? Did you find that on the internet? Nobody, sorry. Let's just keep the drawer in mind to check back on it when we need to. Just having fun, sorry. The witch in gold has nothing to do with any of this. Don't take anything I thought about just now seriously.The odd chair on the left has nothing of note. Same for the curtain, which has nothing behind it. If we examine the painting in the nook, though... This portrait is loose.After a bit of fiddling, Invidia managed to detach a corner from the wall. Pray accept my assistance.Together, the wolf and the cow both managed to take the portrait down, revealing an indented area behind it, occupied by a safe. This means we only need to piece together some kind of code. Interestingly enough, there are no numbers on the safe. However, there are letters. All twenty-six of them, to be precise. I'm not sure what to make of this yet. This combination does not work like one you may expect. One can lightly press upon the dial to implant their selection rather than stopping and reversing. And that means the combination might just be longer than 3 letters. Additionally, there is a small engraving that says “T21 + S21 + H321” and I am at a loss as to what this could possibly mean. Perhaps we have to find something that is related to the safe or where it was found? I think we'll have to figure that out.The light in the nook has nothing of note either (can't even turn it on), so all that's left is the left side paintings.  The upper one doesn't move, but the lower one...By using the three keys they found, the duo undid the locks on the frame of the bottom portrait. It looked as though it could move, unlike the one on top, so Tristitia gave it a good shove. He grasped the corner and began rotating it onto the wall. After a few seconds of doing this back and forth to see if anything would come of it, Tristitia made a piece of paper fall to the ground from behind the portrait. It's a piece of paper. I saw that. What's it say? It says “Made of AIR”... and it has a small hexagon next to it, too. So it's like a riddle. Maybe. It's probably linked to whatever that safe has for a combination. What is made of air? Empty space? Close enough, but I don't think it's that figurative. And besides, air isn't empty space. I think it means it more in a literal sense. Yes. Which would mean... “IRA”? It's too soon to say right now.And with that, we have all the clues we need to open the safe! Specifically, all three slips of paper will give us the password to the safe. We have three pieces of paper with letters and symbols. One of them says that something is made of “AIR”. Then there's one with a triangle on it and one with a square on it. According to the safe, we have some guidelines. They give us the order for them to go in, I think. Have you eavesdropped, you duplicitous buffoon? Can't help it, this room is rather small. Anyway, what's the combination like, then? Triangle, square, hexagon... three letters, two numbers, and two numbers... The answer should be pretty obvious, but now's the time to solve it if you wanna do it the intended way. Invidia will explain how you get it after we put it in, so I'm going to let him handle that. The password is: Yeah, I got it. The numbers correspond to letters in the alphabet, and by reversing them according to the order given to us... And if you put them together in the order “triangle square hexagon”... Reverse the letters and add them up- yeah, that's L-U-X-U-R-I-A. The code for the safe is “Luxuria”, huh. That was quite quick from both of you. I'm good at associating random stuff together like that. This is rather easy... as if it was made for just one person to solve. I guess... we have our code, then. And also I assume this means that this room has a clear link with Luxuria. A bedroom is linked to Luxuria? To begin with, this doesn't seem like a normal house bedroom... More like a hotel room. … Let's open the safe.Let's. According to everything we found here, the combination should be... wait, what was it again? It's L-U-X-U-R-I-A, so enter it already. Right. Just give me a second...Invidia turned the dial, pressing upon the top of it when it selected the appropriate letters. After doing so, everyone held their breaths as the wolf-themed boy pulled on the door. It came open. Might this safe contain a card of some variety, perhaps? Yes, there's one of those in there. Just one, though. Here, you can have it, Trist. Generous, aren't we? This safe cannot possibly only contain these two items of significance, I presume. You're right, there's also a piece of paper. Judging by all the other rooms, this should point us directly to the solution.He read it aloud. Um... it says: “6 5 25 25 Y – 22 1 11 8 TEST”. Interestingly, I don't think we have to touch the letters, but we certainly have to do something with the numbers. Maybe we can substitute each number for a letter in the alphabet? Except it doesn't make any sense like this. “Feyyy-Vakh Test” is pure nonsense. And why is there a letter in the spaced lineup that's already uncovered? Wouldn't that letter Y also be 25 like the others? Something's amiss. Do you believe we have unearthed the necessary components to solve this room's mystery? I don't know. I'll think about it for a few more, okay? I'll be waiting here, I guess. Gather back at the safe when everyone's ready to go. No turning back once we do so. We do, in fact, have everything we need to find the escape solution, so no point in dragging our feet now. Everyone's ready? I'll open the door. Let's not waste any time. Who are part of that test thing?Gula remained off to the side this whole time, letting them figure it out. She didn't look unconcerned, only busy thinking. Our answer lies in the instructions. We can't use the normal alphabet, so... Let ME out! The answer is... Okay. This one is much less obvious unless you happen to know a particular piece of (very specific/niche) trivia, so to find the answer, there's a few things to keep in mind. For starters, it should be obvious by now the answer is not, in fact, any of the nine participants. It's still obviously some kind of letter substitution cypher, but not the standard A=1, B=2, etc one. If we remember what the “fork” said on it, it tells us “the other drawer is the alphabet, spaces count too”, and inside the drawer on the other side of the bed was “no basket no box no marble”, which, if we include the spaces, is exactly 26 characters. Thus, we use that phrase as our “alphabet” and do the number substitution from there, which gives us our answer:  … Sally-Anne! It's the Sally-Anne Test!The door unlocked. This was one of the strangest answers they had to give so far. That it took this entire room to figure it out was bothering Tristitia. Well, if it was the right answer, it was the right answer. I think I've read about that before... Perhaps you did. But still, we should make our way out and keep our heads attached to our bodies, yes? And unexploded, as well.She was the first to vacate the room. Shortly thereafter, the others followed her.
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Oct 23, 2021 21:25
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quote:Just having fun, sorry. The witch in gold has nothing to do with any of this. Don't take anything I thought about just now seriously. I suppose you could call some of the players 'Battlers'... Anyway, the Sally-Anne test is a test regarding a person's ability to track a character's perspective. It regards two characters (typically played by puppets or drawings), Sally and Anne. In the scenario, Sally puts a marble she has into a basket, then leaves the room. While she is out, Anne takes the marble and moves it from Sally's basket to a box that Anne has. Then Sally returns. The question given to the viewer is, "Where will Sally look for her marble?" The answer is 'the basket', as Sally was out of the room when the whole thing occurred. Come to think of it, there's a distinct resmeblance to what happened with the red and blue bowls and the 15 ME-cards, with 'Ancora'/'ME'/whoever as Sally. Except in normal life, you can't copy an object by observing it...
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Oct 23, 2021 23:08
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I don't know if it's relevant to the game, but autistic children do very poorly on this test.Beatrice posted:No Dine. No Knox. No fair. idonotlikepeas fucked around with this message at 23:25 on Oct 23, 2021 |
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Oct 23, 2021 23:23
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 content warning: vague mention of sexual harrassment and implied assault BGM: Medius About that Sally-Anne Test, what is it? And I'm still dubious about you, Invidia. I demand some explanations... Seems like the first is our answer, and the second... Can I even say, yet? I guess I can. We're this far in, so it doesn't matter. Ancora's dead, anyway. Why is that girl so important? Coherence. Anyway, I know the mastermind's Avaritia. I didn't ask about her, but about you. And either way, she's dead now. I guess I owe Lux some apologies... not that I can give them to her, now. Except Lux is a boy. Dangerous. A dangerous boy, that gave Ancora a scarring that somehow can last through time, triggered when she hears the word “hope”... You might want to correct that. Lux is a boy. Yes. Girls trust him because he's cute and looks like a girl, but when they learn the truth they all shun him, so... he grows forceful with them. That's his sin, you know. I see... Don't think this absolves you, anyway. I have my eye on you.Gula did not comment. Instead, she remained a little further apart from the group of two. It seemed as though she might be deep in thought. Invidia chose not to disturb her. Instead, he gave a nod of his head towards the hallway. Let's go back to the voting booths. We only have ten minutes or so to put in the ME-cards. But we're short 16 ME-cards, so we can't even do this...Invidia grabbed the bowls from the floor. We can do it with this. Or, we could, if Ancora was still alive. Do you know what the Sally-Anne Test is? BGM: Memini Meminisse It goes something along the lines of... There is Sally and there is Anne. Sally has a marble and a basket. Anne has a box. Sally puts the marble in her basket and subsequently leaves. Then, Anne takes the marble from the basket and puts it in the box while Sally is away. When Sally comes back, which, of the basket and the box, will she check for the marble? Obviously, she's going to check the basket. It's a test because it's used to determine when children can differentiate from their point of view and another person's point of view. The reason why it's so important here is...BGM: Mereo Mentis We're going to do the same thing that some exceptionally dangerous drugs have been made to do, which is attributing false beliefs to someone. Do you know how the Bible begins? Something about God creating the world in six days...? I'm not especially religious, so that kind of thing goes over my head. Correct. On the sixth day, God witnesses the world, and sees all that He made was good. Well, it's a little like an epiphany. Once you know something, you can't un-know it. Sometimes, epiphanies come on their own, too. No, wait, maybe it's still possible. Or would have been possible. Either way, it would create a real miracle, right then and there. That doesn't make any sense. You can't just... You can. It's all a matter of perspectives. Belief is the strongest of abilities, but it's not enough for us to believe, because we are a part of this world already- we are the ones being observed. God has to believe, so strongly yet so fragilely, any truth could break it. Were we to fulfill the necessary clauses for the Sally-Anne Test, would we have a way to exit this terrible predicament? If Ancora was still alive. I keep saying that, but I think it would maybe still be possible. I keep it vague because, the moment I explain it, the trick will no longer work. At least, if God is watching. You can bet God's watching. Which He probably is. See, God isn't omnipotent or omnipresent. Thankfully, too. God is attracted to interesting situations, so He's probably around here somewhere. Maybe He's in someone's head. Ah, and having psychic powers isn't ridiculous? You're as inconsistent as you are dumb. I thought you were smart, but you don't seem to be making any of your previous connections this time around. Or maybe you have, and you're hiding it.BGM: Medius Invidia said nothing, picking up the bowls and carrying them with him as the three of them made their move to return to the room with all the voting machines. Arriving there, they noticed something was missing. What was missing became apparent upon counting the dead bodies. Avaritia was not there. No dead body was, actually. BGM: Metis  Of course not. Would you rig your own machines to terminate yourself upon failure if you had full control over this installation? No, I don't think it's that. There's something else here. Maybe what we see isn't true, sometimes. We've only seen others with these helmets on... Don't give too much away, Vidi. Leave some for the finale.*bang*  As the shotgun Avaritia wielded fumed, the male's helmet exploded. She'd shot right through his head, which was now gone in a torrential blast. Ahh! You... what are you going to do?Her tone changed the moment she noticed Avaritia was aiming at her, next. I'm going to end this game. There's nothing else to do with this one, and we're still on path. Don't kill me, please. It's inevitable, but you'll be back, so don't worry. I'll answer one question before that, however. Choose wisely. Is Gula wondering the same thing about the gun, too?The cow-themed girl was taking her time in picking out a question to answer. The timer was ticking down, and those ten minutes were gradually diminishing to five. Soon, there wouldn't be any time to do anything else. Pray tell, then. Why does this entire place exist? I can't say that yet. I'll grace you another question instead. Then I want to know who you two really are, is that better? That, I can answer... partially. I'm Ityne Icofilm, and his name's Marco. I can also say that I am not, in fact, the teacher you might remember, but a much older woman.The one named Marco, uninterested, looked away for a moment.  Wait-*bang* But Ityne did not wait. In the next moment, Gula was blasted away by the seemingly empty shotgun. She fell to the ground and, much like the rest, her head exploded, rendering her body without a controlling center. Alright, ME. Terminate the game.The timer disappeared. This is a bit of a mess. We have a lot of cleanup to do, Ava. And can I stop calling you Ava? I guess that's fine now. You know what to do with Pandora, right? After that, we're in the clear. It's hilarious that you of all people would ask that. Stop complaining and get to work. Just tell Pandora what you have to tell her. This time it's a bust, but we're very close. I have no idea what you're talking about.BGM: Memoria  We've gotten them trapped in here because they have sinned to the highest degree. Murder, arson, assault, torture, harmful falsification of the truth, and more. But that's still not right. You took over everything. We didn't take over anything. This was our game from the beginning. Did you think you had any control? Pandora, if anyone's a usurper, it's YOU, not ME. Ugh! I can't believe this. No, I'll go back. I'll go back to where this all started and stop you. You can't do anything from where you are. Not now or before, or any time. You're wrong, Marco. I'll help everyone escape. I'll go back and everyone will leave. *bang* But he couldn't say anything else. Ityne aimed the shotgun at his face and suddenly pulled the trigger. This time, the shotgun had real ammo. She had been reloading it while he was busy with me. He didn't even scream. He fell to the ground, and the helmet was destroyed, yet didn't explode. I couldn't see anything else anymore. I couldn't see anything, but I could still hear.  Something felt extremely wrong with this. It took me a short while, around as much as a microsecond, but as I thought about those details, I realized what felt so wrong about them. The number 20,141,119 kinda looks like...But the TRUST activated.                                                 BGM: Silence       Lock #6 obtained.
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Oct 25, 2021 22:46
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 I am so incredibly lost right now.
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Oct 25, 2021 23:44
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PlasticAutomaton posted:
Nice to know it's not just me.
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Oct 25, 2021 23:45
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Same. WTF?
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Oct 25, 2021 23:58
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I am also lost, but as best I can understand it, the following are true information we've gotten in the last couple updates: -We're some pseudo-AI called Pandora that is basically in the helmets themselves and not actually Ancora -Ancora was never actually the mastermind, though she was allowed to get the information from hacking the helmets via Pandora -Avarita (Ityne Icofilm) and Invidia (Marco) have heavily subverted the game to their own purpose and/or actually guided the creation of the game from the start -Since we are only seeing what the helmet shows us, we basically can't trust any of it - as shown by how we 'saw' Avarita die due to vote-fuckery when no she actually didn't
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Oct 26, 2021 00:19
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There's still one or more loose ends, though. 'What's up with Superbia' is probably the big one. And Avaritia's real name.
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Oct 26, 2021 00:49
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Don't forget all the stuff about God and observation; presumably the intention is that if God doesn't notice the ME-cards being removed, the character God is following will look for them in the spot they think they should be in (because of the Sally-Anne test) and because we're talking about God here, the cards will actually be there. But then the other characters, who know that the cards are under the other bowl, will ALSO find a set, thereby giving everyone enough cards to use in the machine. I guess we're God in this scenario, so we have to make sure we don't become aware of the cards being moved from their original spot, which is why we were able to find duplicate ones that previous time. I don't know if this is the actual mechanical explanation or some weird crap we're supposed to believe about whatever is actually going on there. (Possibly due to the helmets lying to everyone?)
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Oct 26, 2021 04:40
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There's also the 'what's the point' of why bother with such a duplication in the first place? Mind you... if the cards were representative of something not trivially copiable, such as (say) a person, I could see it.
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Oct 26, 2021 05:27
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Quackles posted:There's also the 'what's the point' of why bother with such a duplication in the first place? The point is they need a certain amount of cards to escape, an amount that it increasingly feels like is outright impossible to get without cheating in some way. So, we're playing back into the idea of the last game as a way to summon and manipulate the perceptions of "God"--in this case, Pandora. Pandora thought they were in charge of this game, tasked with finding the traitor and hiding the fact that they're the mastermind. In fact, however, Ava is the mastermind and Invi is her assistant (and also some iteration of Marco, it seems). Given the talk that Ava is much older than they remember, it's likely this is still happening across periods of time. The grand "why" is still a question. In the first game, the original experiment was done in order to summon God and thus ensure that the world existed by being observed--the subsequent loops were Emily trying to manipulate God's perceptions in order to get the happy ending she wanted. Were I to hazard a guess, this game's goal is to try and manipulate the world by manipulating God's perception outright. The card duplication isn't just useful, it may well be the goal of the game: to be able to materialize whatever they want by manipulating God's gaze. That may be the point of the helmets, now that I think about it. By giving the illusion of "hacking", they allow God to switch perspectives, something that wasn't possible previously. Of course, there are still some differences. Invi can communicate with Pandora, which calls into question whether Pandora is "God" in the same way the player was in the first game. At the very least, I do find one bit amusing: in the first game, Emily was actively counting on God's desire for a happy ending to drive them coming back and observing the additional loops. Here, that same trait seems to frustrate Ava and Invi. Or maybe it doesn't frustrate Invi. Maybe Invi's still the traitor--except maybe it's Ava he's a traitor to, not us.
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Oct 27, 2021 15:34
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BGM: Meditor ...Where am I?  Floating in a sea of nothing... Before, everything was dark. Now, I know that you're here. The thought is comforting. Please, don't go.. not yet. I need you here. Right now. ...but it's useless, isn't it? I already know you'll kill me.    BGM: Mens Metis    BGM: Silence YOU and ME now make US. BGM: Metis The classroom was silent. In the room were three individuals. One of them was asleep, the others weren't. One of those awake was me. I stood up. With my helmet finally active, I could see how this room went with my own view, with my own body. It was... different.   It won't take long for Gula to wake up. Luxuria's already up, though, and I can see she was the culprit behind the black spots on Gula's top. Oh, you're finally up! You're lucky, luckier than this girl at least...The small girl addressed me while throwing away a black marker pen. No, it wasn't a girl- it was a boy. I remembered then, the trauma of that boy... the scarring of his physical assault. It wasn't my scarring, though. It was Ancora's. Thankfully, I'm not Ancora. I'm Pandora. Not that lucky considering where we are. But where are we...? Which school? Is it... Huh? What's the difference between a school and this place, then? Because we're in a classroom, no? I don't actually know, all this just sneaked up on me out of nowhere. Right now, we have to wait for Gula to wake up, which she'll do soon, probably. Gula? Is that her name? Sounds weird. No weirder than your own, Luxuria. That's super uncute... Hmm... But I guess you're right. That name does ring a bell, somehow. Pray pardon my inquiry, but it truly feels as though you are quite knowledgeable about our current predicament. What are you...She rubbed two hands over her face- over her helmet- before continuing. I mean, we. What are we adorned with? These unsightly helmets serve which purpose? They look a little like animal heads. As for their purposes, I think it'll be made clearer to us soon. Interesting, I suppose. But I desire to remove it.It was at that moment that I cut them off, or rather, ME did. Everyone's vision became empty. Black. The exterior didn't let any sound come in. BGM: ME Mori  A girl followed. It was ME, who was me. Much like before, I- or, precisely, my avatar- began talking after a very brief moment of silence. Hello everyone, and welcome to your unfortunate but warranted prison. My name is ME, and meeting you at last is entirely my pleasure, I assure you. Please remain silent, as no one can hear you, and this is a very important recording you will only hear once. It is shared to all nine of you, to keep the playing field fair. As that honeyed voice flowed forth, the pose on the screen changed as if to indicate a different emotion. However, the tonality was unchanging, clashing with what was shown. The helmet you wear is very special. If you attempt to remove it, you will be surrendering your right to live. So I would please urge you to not do that! Or do it if you want. It's no skin off my back. No, really; I don't have skin, I'm just an avatar.The avatar's tone grew colder with those words, but it was back to normal as quickly as it had first changed. I understand it is very uncomfortable, but if you wish to get rid of it, you'll have to follow my instructions later. For the time being, you are stuck with it. Now, very important fact: I am merely an image that represents someone in your group. Your goal in this game is to kill me. To that effect, the game we will play is called... you guessed it, “Kill ME”. Unfortunately, your time is not infinite... You have a total of six hours to bring about my death. Should the allotted time expire, you will all surrender your right to live. The thought is so very unbearable... Ah, speaking of time limits... when you are in a room like this one, your time limit is shortened to 39 minutes. In these first rooms, all three groups will have to figure out what links all of you together. Don't worry; I made it a little easy because the time will have been ticking down to 30 minutes while I spoke. See, I am fair... as long as you obey the rules.The chilling stare made its appearance once more, only to be replaced with her normal, kinder eyes afterwards. Don't worry! As soon as you figure out the answer, simply say: “Let ME out!” followed by the answer, and the door will automatically come unlocked. Unfortunately, if your answer is wrong, the one who said it will surrender their right to live. I trust you understand this means that if you senselessly scream for me to let you out, you will merely die, so please do not do it! Or do it if you want. If you animals value your lives so little, then be my guest. Make absolutely sure to collect the keycards and any weird keys you find here. To disable cheating, you are not allowed to take any item out with you that isn't in one of the final containers of these Deduction Rooms. BGM: Metis  Something feels a little... wrong with that recording, but I can't put my finger on what. Maybe it was the last part... It's different. Uhh.. what... what was that? I believe that was a message provided to us by our captor. I would prefer dismissing it as an obtuse farce, yet elements such as these uncomfortable helmets lead me to believe all of the arrangements to be true to ME's speech. But... last thing I remember, I was...There was a small pause from the small boy. I can't say, I don't think. It wouldn't be good... Have you two heard what she said? We need to hurry out of here. Start searching the room now, or we'll surrender our right to live. Couldn't we introduce ourselves first? I'm, uhh... The only thing that comes to mind is Luxuria... And to mine, Gula. But that's less palatable than other options. Simply call me Ula. Oh, we can pick our own nickname? I'll go with Lux, then. What about you?He addressed me. A part of me wanted to shake him out of his cute act, but I knew that if I was not careful, it could cost me my life. The other part of me wanted to see him try taking it. I wasn't Ancora, he couldn't tackle me down.  Pandora, I see. Pandora! I like Pandora. It's cute! We should start searching now that that's settled, since the timer's going down I guess...I can't use the Ancora moniker since Ancora herself will get it. And it never was mine to begin with. It was the other girl's nickname. I am Pandora... and I will foil the usurpers, even if it means saving everyone. BGM: Mendosus  Well, this sure looks familiar, huh? That said, we aren't going to be solving this puzzle- if we try to, Pandora refuses. That said, we CAN still talk to Luxuria about ME, so I of course went and did just that What's up? About the girl in the helmet... What about her? She was kinda cute I guess. I like cute things.Luxuria did a little spin to show himself off, as if this would prove he was cute, too.  And you're not thinking of anything else but what's cute? Of course not. I don't have time for anything that isn't cute. His overuse of “cute” is starting to get on my nerves. And what about the helmets we're wearing? Oh, those are not cute. Can we change the topic? Anything else you wanna talk about? Nothing, I think. Come back anytime!No thanks! Gula turns us away if we try to talk to her, so we're locked into investigating the only thing of note in here... ... the box. I stood in front of the box that had caused me no ends of headaches. It had always been at the back of my mind. What is its purpose? What is inside? It has never been opened before. You are not seriously thinking about lifting this encapsulating device, are you? I have attempted such a few minutes ago, to no avail. And if Ula can't do it, then... I don't think I can, either. This box? If I can lift it?I figured I may as well humor Gula on that one. With both hands, I grabbed the sides and put forth all of my energy into lifting the box...  It's really light, actually.I let it fall to the ground, expecting it to comically bounce as if it was made of rubber. However, it gave a solid noise, as if a truck had crashed into the wall. Eeehh! Ahhh!I stared at the box, bewildered. I questioned myself on the reason why I could lift it with such ease while they struggled so much. I also looked around it, trying to find the keypad to enter the code from before. How can you lift it so easily...? I could feel how heavy it was from over here!Gula remained silent. I put the first four numbers into the keypad... I really wanted to finally see what was inside of that box.   The first part was in and it was correct. I readied for the second part.   The box unlocked! I quickly opened the metallic lid... Inside was nothing. The entire box contained nothing but a large block of concrete. On it was engraved the question “Who are you?” and nothing else. What have you unearthed? “Who are you?” What kind of question is that?Right after that, everyone's vision became obscured once more. BGM: ME Mori  What does it mean?It was ME. Congratulations! Someone opened the box. How fitting that it was Pandora herself. Well, actually, you were made for that, so it's really on purpose, sister. Every door in this place is now opened and unlocked. However, you'll still have to go through all of my little game. It just has... changed a little, from the original plan. The next directives are for Pandora. Send everyone to a separate room. Make sure they enter alone in each of those rooms. The doors will lock as normal, and they will have to solve them, alone. You can organize that, right? You're the leader of My Emptiness. That's correct, that's what links you all here. Sorry to break the surprise. Oops, you're not really that Pandora, are you? You're the Pandora of this... place. You and her- you're different people, but I'm sure you understood that already. So I want everyone else to understand that, too. As I said, plans have changed. Gather all of the keycards; all of the ME-cards. Tell them what answers they need to solve their own rooms. Each of the set of rooms beyond these ones corresponds to one of you. I will be suspending the voting process indefinitely to that effect. I'm sure eight of you have no idea what I'm talking about- that's fine. Please simply trust in Pandora. She will lead you out of here. Or from this jar, if you want to be referentially correct. Have I forgotten anything? Oh, yes. The Sally-Anne Test. Don't worry over it: in light of these events, I've already disabled 15 of the ME-card slots. You only need 24 now. Of course, this also means your time limits in each room just fell down to 24 minutes. With Pandora's help, you'll already have the answer and the process to solve them all, so it should be no big deal. I can't believe you animals are the key to saving the future. If I had to rely on you, I'd kiss my rear end goodbye. “Saving the future,” in a manner of speaking. It's more like... “not screwing up the future” more than saving it. And by the way, forget the whole deal with recordings. This is real time. I'm an AI named ME. Let's stop my messages for now and reconvene later. Now, you know what to do.BGM: Metis And with that, the recording cut off. True to what ME was saying, the door clicked as it came unlocked and everyone's timers disappeared.  My head hurts. Let's... let's get out of here. I don't understand anything. Honestly, I'm a little... confused too. But I think I have the gist of it. Let's go. This time, this body isn't going to be killed off by the two of them. And yet, it seems as though Ityne and Marco already accounted for me unlocking the box? I don't know what's up with this, but I'll overcome that, too. I'm coming for the two of you. In a few moments, even, so just you wait.
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Oct 27, 2021 19:42
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Hoo boy. We’re getting to the end of the line, now.
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Oct 27, 2021 20:01
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Luxuria absolutely does continue to be the worst character.
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Oct 27, 2021 20:57
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So... anyone else notice that Ityne Icofilm is an anagram of Emily Fiction?
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Oct 28, 2021 17:13
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| # ? Jun 1, 2024 19:18 |
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Ghost Car posted:So... anyone else notice that Ityne Icofilm is an anagram of Emily Fiction? I was wondering. I got 'Felicity Mino' but couldn't make more of it.
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Oct 29, 2021 08:39
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