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Those are... certainly a couple of interesting discoveries Mouse found. 
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Nov 24, 2022 06:02
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| # ? Jun 8, 2024 15:09 |
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So there's a "poison" ability that does nothing as long as the other player doesn't act on it. Since Mouse and Sheep both know about this, it makes the trinket useless. If Mouse were to poison someone to trick them into taking the antidote, Sheep could just call her out. Which makes it very worrying that there is apparently a variation where Sheep is the only one to see that note...
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Nov 24, 2022 07:07
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Cloacamazing! posted:So there's a "poison" ability that does nothing as long as the other player doesn't act on it. Since Mouse and Sheep both know about this, it makes the trinket useless. If Mouse were to poison someone to trick them into taking the antidote, Sheep could just call her out. It's possible that the "poison" could be used as a way to sort of test Monkey; if she's *really* willing to accept death, it would be pretty solid evidence that she's A) telling the truth about her role and B) really meant it when she said she was willing to sacrifice herself for the group. Which would make her a prime candidate for getting her personality changed with the Sheep Major Artifact. It's a rather cold tactic, though. Unless Monkey has supernatural people-reading abilities and would be capable of reading Mouse/Sheep's reactions well enough to know that the poison is a trick. Which is within the realm of possibility.
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Nov 24, 2022 07:44
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She's Mouse's therapist, I'd be worried if she thought Mouse would kill her in cold blood.
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Nov 24, 2022 18:03
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I thought Monkey was Brian's therapist. This antidote/venom test isn't that helpful for Monkey, IMO. Without the item, they can do something similar by leaving her tied up for a round or by having someone camp/watch her so that she cannot use her tablet. I agree that Mouse was acting cruelly to Sheep, unlike her usual self. It could be due to different writers tackling different routes.
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Nov 24, 2022 20:38
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NeoRonTheNeuron posted:I thought Monkey was Brian's therapist. They both are/were her clients for mouse and Brian respectively.
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Nov 24, 2022 20:52
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Thanks, I'd forgotten that part of the intro. It'd be cool if that explains the shift in Mouse's behavior. It's tough to watch your therapist be CONTENT with being executed.
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Nov 24, 2022 23:12
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 [BGM: Silence]  I read the bizarre note a few times, to try and understand. I noticed Rooster was looking over my shoulder, so I handed the paper to him, to see what he thought.  So? Thoughts? Hmm.  Well, first impressions? This doesn't pass the Bechdel test. Like, not at all. Would you get serious for a moment! If I'm interpreting this right, we just found a way to end this game right now! Woah! Really? Yes, really. I mean, if I'm interpreting that right. If we carry out what's written there, we'll all be 'brought to the final space'. That's gotta mean on the board. And with that, we can all finish together. I like your thinking, Mouse. It appears the end is in sight![BGM: That Pesky Rodent]  I guess. But that's only if we can even set this whole thing up. I doubt an easy cheat like this would be given by Brian. There's probably some catch. Well, we should at least try to assemble it, right? Absolutely. First things first, we need to arrange the chairs. The first will align with the red stars, huh? The hell could that mean? I've no idea. It could be a metaphor. Or a simile. I could never tell the difference. It's not hard to remember, you use the two in pretty different contexts. Well that's the problem, I presume. Actually, stop. Hm? I sense a really dumb pun coming up, and frankly I'm just not about that right now. Tch. I'll have you know it would've been a really cool pun. Anyways, what's Brian's obsession with red stars, anyways? First he scribbles them on the carpet, then he talks about it in a poem? Like, what's the deal? Stars aren't even red. Wait, there are stars on the carpet?I looked around on the floor, and sure enough, at the end of the room I saw four red marks at equal distance from each other. This is it!Without explaining myself, I grabbed a chair from one of the desks and aligned its legs with the marks on the floor. As expected, a perfect fit. Okay, this is our starting position. The other chairs are each three feet from this, right? And we need to make a perfect circle? Ooh, there's a yardstick over here! We can use this! Good eye, Rooster!From there, Rooster and I got to work. We pushed all the desks out of the way, and began measuring out the other chair positions. With a bit of work, we created the perfect ritual setup. Okay, this is starting to look good. I'll need to sit on the chair with the red stars, and I guess everyone else will just sit in animal order. Oh, but there was that weird clause about Monkey and Sheep, right? Yeah, that seemed a bit jarring. If I were to guess, there's probably a smart person reason for why Brian decided to include that. Probably a reference to some book or something. loving nerd. Anyways, it's not a big concern. It just means the order should be me, Ox, Tiger, Bunny, Dragon, Snake, Sheep, Horse, Rooster, Monkey, Dog, Pig, back to me. We'll all need to lock hands in darkness. If that's the case, we should close the blinds, right? Good thinking. Do that.As I commanded, Rooster began to close all the blinds, even the one above the door's window. We can save turning the lights off for later. Right. Here's where things get tricky. We need a stool in the center of the circle. Oh, there's one over there! I got it.Without even being asked, Rooster moved the stool to the center of the circle. He seemed to be getting into decorating his very own ritual.  We need the needle, which I guess we're going to use to draw blood. Ew. Agreed. But necessary.Rooster put the needle on the stool. We also need a bucket. Uh... Oh, there's a bucket of pencils on that teacher's desk!Rooster walked over and grabbed the bucket of pencils off the desk, before pouring all the supplies in it out onto the floor. The tricky thing is the oil.[BGM: Bullfighter]  You think there's oil in this room? Why would oil be in a classroom? I dunno. Everything else was in the classroom. I don't think we'll be so lucky. But there's gotta be oil in the school. If not, this whole thing would be a complete waste of time. ...I guess I wouldn't put that past Brian, but somehow, I doubt that's what's happening.I took a pause to think. Where could I get oil? Unexpectedly, it was Rooster who came in with the save.  Say, on the first floor, there was something that looked like a generator room. You think we could find something useful there? Ah, great thinking, Rooster! That's a great place to start. Awesome. Come on, let's go down and look.We grabbed the bucket and made our way down to the first floor. Eventually, we got to the hallway that led to the generator room. It was poorly lit, and pretty dark at the end of the hallway.  Well... ladies first! Rooster, do you not want to go in? Actually, if I could just sort of stay down at this end of the hallway, that'd be great for me. … You know, I could keep watch! Keep guard! If anything comes up, I can alert you! In fact, we should come up with some sort of signaling system. Maybe a bird cry or something, we'll workshop. You know what? Forget it. Stay here, I'll go grab the oil. Okay, sounds like a plan. Jeez, some action star. Afraid of the dark? Really? I am not afraid of the dark! I just get bad vibes from that hallway! Whatever you say.Without Rooster, I walked down the hallway. Why does a school even have a place like this? Shouldn't this be locked away? Maybe it normally is. As I got to the end of the hallway, it got really dark. Surely there was a light switch somewhere or something? If I looked around the walls... Ouch! I stubbed my toe on something. I bent down to see what I had hit, and grabbed something that felt like a canister. Is this it? It was tricky in the dark, but I was able to open it up. Normally it'd be a lot harder, but this canister had already been opened before. I dipped the bucket in, and before I knew it, it was filled with something. Something that didn't feel particularly nice, as it got on my hands. I eagerly made my way out of the hallway. As I started to see better, I realized I had indeed gotten oil. Yes! [BGM: Silence]  You got it? You're drat right I did. Bravissimo! With this, all that's left is to gather the others, correct? Precisely.[BGM: Queen of the Jungle]  And so, after dropping off the bucket by the stool, we did exactly that. Rooster and I went through the school and told people the long and short of it. There were a variety of reactions, but everyone agreed to try it out, and they all made their way to the classroom. The only complication was Monkey. For this to work, we'd need everyone's cooperation. That included Monkey. However, Monkey expressed earnest interest in helping the group. ...Of course she did, she always had. It was agreed that she could be untied and allowed to participate. Tying her up was an excessive measure in the first place, especially since she clearly posed us no ill-will. She was the last to make her way up to the third floor. And with that, everything was prepared. We had the chairs set up. Everyone was here. We all input our actions for the round right before entering the classroom. In the center, the bucket of oil and the needle. Was there anything we were missing? ...There must be. This felt too easy. Could we really end this whole nightmare just by doing something this simple? And yet, everything seemed to be in order. We had followed the note's instruction to the tee. The only thing that could stop us now would be if someone messed up the ritual. And the only person who would benefit from something like that would be the other traitor. The one who hadn't outed themselves. But if they tried to sabotage us at this stage, they'd surely be found out. So, this was game set match... right? Pig echoed my thoughts.   So... We're good? We just follow what the note says and everything will end? Just like that? Seems like it. Isn't this super suspicious though? Are we sure we can trust this? What's not to trust? The note was written out pretty clear. Written out in blood! You're a writer, aren't you Pig? Surely you've broken all your pencils before. I mean, who among us hasn't?  Weren't most of the notes typed out? Then Brian was out of ink. He could just get more ink. Ink? In this economy? Didn't know you were living so good, Pig. Looks like journalism pays bigger bucks than I thought. I legitimately can't tell if you're messing with me or not. This is high school all over again. Um, Pig, I know what it's like to not believe things would really be this easy. Trust me, this seems too good to be true to me, too.  But that note was found in a safe, right? It was left by Brian. I don't think it's like him to lie about a note. So maybe we just got lucky? Hah! Lucky! What a joke. Can't you just look at things optimistically? Yeah, Pig. Why you gotta look at everything glass half-poisoned? That's not, I don't-Pig stopped to take a breath and calm herself.   Come on, what's the harm in at least trying it out? If nothing comes of it, bummer. But if it does? We can all escape together! Well, not all of us can. Oh, uh, sorry. No need to apologize, I was simply stating a fact. Right.  In truth, perhaps it is a good thing to be so bluntly reminded of my impending mortality. It's nice to know that the tragedy of my death will far be outshone by everyone else's joy in escaping. … So, why don't we give it a try, Pig? Oh, alright. Fine. Can we please just get on with it? We've been standing around here doing nothing for quite some time. I know you lot think we've found some sort of special shortcut, but I won't trust it until I see it with my own two eyes. Ox is right. We should get started. First things first, everyone get to your places. We all awkwardly shuffled over to the appropriate chairs. Next, we need to link our hands.I leaned over and grabbed the hands of both Pig and Ox. Um, Mouse? Don't we need someone to go and turn off the lights? Oh, shoot, right. I didn't think about that. You're close to the light switch Bunny, why don't you be a doll and handle that for us? Sure thing.Bunny let go of Tiger and Dragon and walked over to the light switch. [BGM: Silence]  With a simple flick, the room was engulfed in darkness. ...Well, it wasn't total darkness. After letting my eyes adjust, it's clear that the closed door and the window blinds could only do so much. Still, it was pretty hard to see nonetheless. I heard more sounds of footsteps. Eventually they stopped. Presumably, Bunny had made his way back to his seat and resumed his place in the hand-link. [BGM: Exotics]  That assumption was confirmed when, moments later, creepy music began to play. Creepy music... that must be the 'choir of the damned' mentioned in the note. I wouldn't exactly call this a 'choir of the damned', but I guess Brian had some artistic license. The music was coming from above, but it didn't exactly sound like it was coming from the school's speakers. Weird. I couldn't speak any of these thoughts, because with the music, the ritual had begun. No speaking allowed. I quickly realized that it was I who had to start things off. Right, right, of course. 'Around the Zodiac Calender, from the beginning' meant the Mouse would start things. Assured in my duties, I let go of Ox and Pig's hands, and began to make my way through the darkness to the stool in the middle of the room. Had things been total darkness, I likely would've fumbled quite a bit. However, I was able to make out the general shape of the stool without too much trouble. ...However, finding the needle that was lying on the stool alongside the bucket required a bit more searching. After a bit of feeling around, I got a hold of it. Okay, now the hard part.  It was embarrassing to say, but I really wasn't looking forward to drawing blood from myself with a needle. I knew it wouldn't hurt that bad, but still. At least I was going first- things would get pretty gross later down the line. With my hand outstretched over the bucket, I gingerly pricked my fingertip with the needle. My skin didn't break. Annoyed, I tried it again, with a bit too much force. poo poo! ...So that was too much force. But I had successfully drawn blood, and ultimately that was what mattered. I heard it drip into the bucket, and I knew my work was complete. Deed done, I turned myself 180 degrees and slowly made my way back to my seat. I sat down, reached out, and eventually grabbed on to Ox and Pig's hands. However, I wouldn't be holding onto Ox's for long, as no sooner did I grabbed Ox's hand did he yank it away.  I heard footsteps to my left, and figured Ox was going to do his part in the ritual. After a time, Ox returned and grabbed my hand once more. Slowly and surely, under the trance of the choir, the darkened ritual took place. It was really quite dramatic, even for what had transpired up until now. Even though I was merely sitting still, I couldn't help but feel a ball of tension in the pit of my stomach. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Life had been throwing me many surprises recently. But unfortunately, on this occasion, life lived up to my expectations. All of a sudden, the music began to blast loudly. The volume had dramatically increased. Ox: AAGH?! Moments later, I heard Ox scream out in confusion, along with another sound I couldn't quite interpret in the heat of the moment. Whatever had happened caused Ox to recoil, letting go of my hand. poo poo, the ritual! If he let go, that would make things invalid. However, that soon became the least of my worries. Because in the span of a second, the person to my left lit up in a humongous burst of flames.  Instantly, the room became filled with screams I couldn't interpret. I didn't have time to scream. I only had time to choose. My next choice was incredibly crucial. 
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Nov 26, 2022 03:07
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Save Ox!
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Nov 26, 2022 03:18
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lmao this stupid ritual is so good. Let's Save Ox!
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Nov 26, 2022 03:30
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Whyyy would you try to do a ritual that requires perfect cooperation from everyone in a situation where A) It's basically impossible to tell whether any particular person cooperates (no way to tell in the darkness whether a given person actually dropped any blood in) B) two participants will die if the ritual is completed successfully and C) there was no known consequence for not cooperating (besides not being able to attempt the ritual again, which is a plus for at least one of the personalities) Sure, Monkey claims to be willing to sacrifice herself, and she might well be, but the other "traitor" personality has zero known motive to go along with this and a huge motive not to. (Though trying to kill Ox seems like a less-than-ideal way to get out of the ritual... surely just pretending to go drop blood in the bucket while not actually dropping oil would be enough, and the fact that everyone is holding hands and going in a specific order would make it rather difficult to get away with murder without getting caught, unless the murderer in question managed to kill everyone else in the room.) Anyways, let's save Ox and go out in a blaze of self-sacrificial glory.
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Nov 26, 2022 04:32
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Let's save Ox and try to salvage what we can out of this train wreck.
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Nov 26, 2022 05:59
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Well that went about as well as expected. Hit em with the extinguisher! E: oooh, I hadn't even thought of comedy option results from trying to save ox. Will mouse forget she is also coated in a flammable liquid and make physical contact? Did out brave protagonists get enough basic fire safety to remember not to throw water on him? Tune in next update to find out! Also, even if we extinguish him ox will probably die from hypovolemic shock, hypothermia, or just having his airway swell shut from inhaling all the hot stuff around his mouth. FoolyCharged fucked around with this message at 06:12 on Nov 26, 2022 |
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Nov 26, 2022 06:07
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Okay, I did not expect Ox to just spontaneously combust, possibly as a penalty for trying to sabotage the ritual since he's the second traitor personality.
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Nov 26, 2022 08:40
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They could have at least offered to use Sheep's major trinket on the other traitor before starting. This is doomed to failure unless both are compliant/neutralized. After such incompetence, Mouse should at least take the risk of going up in flames herself by trying to Save Ox.
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Nov 26, 2022 09:32
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Oh no! Let's go Save Ox! He's our friend! Allegedly! 
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Nov 26, 2022 16:50
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Of all the ways I expected this to go wrong, this was not on the list. Save Ox gogogogo!
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Nov 26, 2022 18:05
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So who's willing to guess that the whole thing isn't real? SOMEONE found the safe first and then planted the note. This essentially allows them to setup a way to kill off someone via the conveniently-requested oil while being anonymous. Now, we have an inkling that it can't be Snake (he has no reason in this route), so who could have done this?
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Nov 27, 2022 13:47
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I was thinking that, but spooky music while everyone is nominally holding hands is tricky. It's probably something Sheep set up though, she gets a special callout in the ritual along with Monkey, and their BGM plays with ritual discovery
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Nov 27, 2022 18:38
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Foxfire_ posted:I was thinking that, but spooky music while everyone is nominally holding hands is tricky. It's probably something Sheep set up though, she gets a special callout in the ritual along with Monkey, and their BGM plays with ritual discovery It's called out as not coming from the PA, so most likely wired to the light switch they conveniently chose not to touch before that moment.
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Nov 27, 2022 23:39
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Going to be contrary and say save ourselves. We don't currently have any way at hand to save Ox and it's dark, this seems like a good way to get killed.
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Nov 28, 2022 16:54
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ZCKaiser posted:Going to be contrary and say save ourselves. We don't currently have any way at hand to save Ox and it's dark, this seems like a good way to get killed. Well, it was dark. Now we have the human torch!
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Nov 28, 2022 18:10
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ZCKaiser posted:Going to be contrary and say save ourselves. We don't currently have any way at hand to save Ox and it's dark, this seems like a good way to get killed. Don't be silly. It's not like mouse also got covered in the flammable oil when she collected it for the ceremony. What could possibly go wrong with getting near him?
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Nov 28, 2022 18:24
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 content warning: body horror/gruesome torture description, emetophobia Wow, who could have seen that this hastily assembled ritual could've gone horrendously wrong? What a surprise!  Anyway, the thread voted to try and save Ox, so that's what we're gonna do.[BGM: Exotics]  What else could I do? I needed to get Ox out of there, immediately! He was dying in front of my eyes, for Christ's sake! I couldn't leave him to die! I leapt into action, reaching out to try and grab one of his arms. I was able to get a hold of one very on-fire arm. In my rush, I didn't even register the first-degree burns I was suffering. Good ol' adrenaline was keeping me laser focused. I gave Ox a strong pull towards me, trying to get him out of the way. Unfortunately, it seemed as though Ox wasn't just in the middle of a fire. He was the fire. Rather, he was directly set on fire. Was that oil he was covered in? [BGM: Silence]  That thought was fleeting, because most of my attention was brought towards the little problem I had created. See, in pulling the source of the fire towards me, I had also brought the fire towards me. My pull was mostly to get him away, without regards to how I ended up. And, well, to make a long story short, I ended up with Ox directly on top of me. A flaming Ox, for that matter. Oh, I imagine that I tried to push him off, to get away. But at that point the oil must've gotten on me, the fire had begun to sear my flesh. I was likely so preoccupied with everything that I didn't hear the sound of footsteps leaving the room, of everyone else running away. Cowards. So yeah, in my attempt to help, I definitely just got myself caught in the fire. Fire ain't a quick death, so as the pain seared my flesh, as I tried to scramble Ox's body off of me and crawl away, I also got the joy of choking on all the smoke. Why am I talking about my fate so distantly? To be honest, this one's so gruesome that I don't even want to play around with it. I'm completely fine dissociating myself. You know, many consider burning to death to be the 3rd most painful way to die. Second is dying of radiation.  And apparently, the most painful way to die is a method called 'Scaphism', an old type of execution. With scaphism, the victim would be trapped in a hollowed out tree trunk and forcefed milk and honey until they had horrible diarrhea. Next, the milk and honey would be poured all over the victim, with the eyes and genitals given special care, in order to attract insects. So the trunk would be filled with honey and poo poo and horrible insects and the victim would just sort of be there, going mad as the insects burrowed in their skin. Whether the victim died of starvation, dehydration, exhaustion, or septic shock is dealer's choice, but whatever the case, it'd be a long and painful process. And that's apparently the worst way to die. The more you know.  Ending - Jack of Clubs  A particularly nasty fate, if I do say so myself. The way in which to avoid this is rather obvious. Observing the hellfire which erupted beside her, Mouse should seek to prioritize her own safety above that of some stranger. If Mouse truly wished for Ox to not die, she shouldn't have gone along with that person's ritual. But how could she resist so tempting an offer? She can't and won't. And so, if Mouse finds that note, Ox will die. Simple cause and effect. Well, we had to break the streak of missing all the bad endings eventually, I guess. Once again, wow, who could have guessed trying to save the person who just turned into a fireball next to us would go wrong? Granted, little hard to predict Mouse would somehow manage to find a way to get stuck underneath a flaming corpse, but eh.Obviously, the right answer here is to... [BGM: Exotics]  My emotional side wept for Ox. My logical side realized there was no way in hell I was saving him. I mean, at this point he was already engulfed in flames. It just wasn't feasible anymore. I should focus on saving those who were still alive. Namely, myself. In what I could only honestly describe as an act of pure cowardice, I immediately turned away from the fire and ran out of the room, through the door. It would've looked pretty lovely if I was the only one to try something like this. Luckily for me, I was hardly the only coward. In fact, the entire room cleared of people. Every single one of them immediately put as much distance between them and the sudden inferno as possible, running out of the room en masse, screaming all the while. [BGM: Silence]  Once we had all gotten to safety, we took a moment to stop, take a breath, and realize what had happened. And once we had calmed down, we were able to re-enter the room and see what exactly we were dealing with. Inside, we didn't see Ox's corpse. That would be far too kind a term for what we laid eyes on. No, instead we looked at flaming, charred flesh in a vaguely human shape. I saw that sight which would be burned into my retinas for the rest of my life. And then I promptly began to throw up. … [BGM: Stampede of Truth]  So it's settled then, right? We're agreed? Nothing is settled. Eeeh, sounds pretty settled to me.Predictably, after the smoke literally cleared, our group defaulted to our usual pastime- incessant bickering. The creepy music had stopped a while ago. It went without saying that the ritual had failed. Our one shot at skipping to the end of this stupid race, blown. But that was really more of a secondary issue. The primary issue being the exact circumstances that had left us with a burning corpse. Clearly, it was murder. Murder by arson. The question was, who did it? Up until this point I had mostly stayed silent in the corner. Even though in the past I had tried to lead the group, I needed some time to take in everything that had just happened. Ox... He was the person I woke up with. The person I had spent a lot of time with. He seemed... reliable. Like someone you could depend on. For him to end up like this? ...Well, at least I was holding up better than some people. But for Ox's sake, I couldn't just stand passively by any longer. I needed to help solve poo poo. It seemed, however, that the group had reached a conclusion without me.  Now now, Horse, we don't want to start a fight over this, we just want to figure out what happened. Could you try explaining to us why you aren't the culprit? I'm not the culprit because I didn't kill anybody. Right, and? And? For him of all people to become the prime suspect... Ah, what a tragedy. This interrogation will be dreadfully dull. Sorry if I'm not 'amusing' to you, Snake. Do you want me to juggle while I deny being a murderer? That's not necessary. Though it'd be pretty badass if you could pull it off.  Indeed. It would be rather 'badass', wouldn't it? Tch. Horse, you can see where we're coming from though, right? Both Rooster and Sheep have confirmed you were standing up when things went down, you admitted it yourself.  It's clear from the way the flames went up that the culprit poured oil on Ox and lit him up. You were the only one who could've done it! I didn't. Compelling stuff. You are not even going to attempt to point out that there's still a significant amount of oil in the bucket? Why would I when you can do that for me? Because I'll also point out that we are unsure of the exact amount of oil that was in the bucket, so it's entirely possible you could've sloshed some on him. If you make points in your defense by yourself, I won't instantly know their weaknesses. Hmph. Sounds annoying. If I have to, though. How exactly did I light the fire? Oh? Now this is an interesting quandary. How was the fire started? If we're looking for ways to light things, I saw Dragon take out this sick lighter earlier. Really? Gonna fuckin' narc on me like that, girl? I thought we were cool. Hey, no, wait, I didn't mean to- Couldn't he have just used a normal match or something? I don't see how this is an issue. I'm not disputing the object used to light the fire. I'm saying that if I had lit something in front of me, you all would have seen that, right? Hey, Horse is right. I definitely would've seen if the fire started small in the center of the room, then was tossed to Ox. The answer lies in just how flammable this oil is. Frankly, the fact that any amount of this was found at the school is distressing. A meeting of teachers should be called to discuss that. More to the point, it takes little to set it ablaze. The igniter could be something as innocent as a particularly bad static shock. With the carpet in this room, surely it's possible that something to that effect was prepared. A static shock? Seriously? Perhaps it's not the most elegant solution. However, it's passable. At any rate, your objection in itself is not enough to absolve you of the 'prime suspicion'. Th-this can't be. There's no way Horse would do this. I mean, I know he doesn't, er, he might not look it, but he's actually really thoughtful. And, AND, do you reallyt hink if he was going to kill Ox he'd do it in such an obvious way? Well, Sheep, Horse doesn't exactly strike me as a man of subtlety. But he's not an idiot either! He wouldn't just do this. Okay, okay, I'm hearing you Sheep. Do you have an alternative explanation? Well, um...[BGM: Ox's Logic]  Oh, I know! What if it was Rooster? Rooster? He was sitting next to Horse, right? B-but, he was also sitting next to Monkey. Monkey is a traitor, so she m-m-might be okay with a plan to disrupt our unity. She says Rooster didn't let go of her hand, but she could be lying about that! So, uh, Rooster's also unaccounted for when the lights went out. I hate to cut in, Sheep, but I must say this is an absolutely ludicrous proposal. Have I not already proven myself trustworthy by confessing my role? I sincerely wish for nothing but the survival of the most people possible. I would tell you if Rooster let go of my hand. He did not. Th-that's... You could be lying! Admitting it earlier could just be a, uh, a ruse! Or you changed your mind? Sheep, regardless of whether or not Monkey is lying, it can't be Rooster. Horse, you made your way right to the stool, right? Correct. And you've claimed the bucket was right in front of you? As far as I can tell. Then how would Rooster have gotten the oil on Ox? In that darkness, he somehow maneuvered around Horse and spilled oil on Ox without him or anyone else noticing? Seems entirely implausible. You... you're right, Snake. Hey, hey, hold on. Who's counting me out? Who's saying what I can or can't do? I totally could have killed Ox! Nothing's holding me back! I could've just prepared my own container of oil beforehand and used that! I knew where Ox was sitting, so I could easily have thrown that oil on Ox without even leaving my seat! And where is this hypothetical container now? Easy. I hid it in a super-secret hiding spot when everyone was running away. So what about that! Try saying I couldn't have done it now! R-rooster's right, he's still a suspect! Rooster, would you please stop? We both know you couldn't have done this. Says who? Ever since we found the note, I've been with you. The note is when we even learned about the oil. In fact, you're the only person who didn't have an opportunity to prepare another container of oil for this. So just stop and let us focus on the important things. Hmph. I still could've done it if I really wanted to. So that's it then? We've settled on Horse as the culprit. Hey, not so fast! Look at how Bunny is trying to fast-track this! Fast-track this? Fast-track what? I just thought the conversation was over. We're out of suspects, right? Not true! There's someone else who could've set this all up. And that person? Is you!Pig overdramatically stuck out her arm and pointed at Bunny. Bunny seemed unimpressed. Pig, what are you doing? Wh-what do you think? I'm exposing you. Really? Really! I don't know why you're all looking at me like that, I'm really right about this! Think back to the start of all this- back at the beginning, the person who turned off the lights was Bunny. Then he 'went back to his seat'. That's right. I did. Did you? Yes. Well, um, you might not have. You could've used that opportunity when all our eyes were re-adjusting to pour oil under Ox's chair. If you did it like that, he might not have noticed it. Pour oil under Ox's chair? Pig, that's ridiculous. All of this is ridiculous! I'm just going along with the situation's tone and following suit, something we should all be doing! Anyways, if Snake's thing about 'static electricity' is correct, and that the oil was super flammable, it's possible that when the fire began was a complete coincidence. You could've just waited patiently for it to start.[BGM: Silence]  B-but Pig, by your logic, couldn't any of the people who stood up have done it? I don't think so. Usually, something like this would be noticeable. When the ritual started, our eyes had adjusted, we were used to the music, and we were all on high alert. We would've noticed if somebody deviated from script too much. But right after Bunny turned the lights off, it was pitch black, the music suddenly started playing- I think it's conceivable that Bunny could've made a move then. Seriously? No one's buying this, right?Bunny desperately looked around the room. Hmm... I must say, the probability that this was the true answer is rather low. However, it is not so low that I can dismiss it outright. Apologies, Bunny, but I think Pig's story holds enough water to mark you as another suspect. Tch. Well, if this is how it needs to be... It seemed as though Bunny was also under suspicion. But... could it really have been him? I couldn't put my finger on it, but something about Pig's version of events just didn't sit right with me. If I could've articulated that into words, I would've, but the feeling was too vague for now. [BGM: Cock a Doodle Doo]   Alright, I'll bite. So, our suspects are Bunny and Horse. Where does that leave us? Need you even ask? We already have a protocol for dealing with suspicious people! You don't mean- Hell yeah, I'll go get more jump ropes! This really doesn't seem necessary. I don't need to go along with this. Note my compliance as a sign of my innocence. Of course, of course Horse. Tiger worked fast. Before I knew it, Bunny and Horse were tied tightly to their chairs. Honestly, I was doubtful about whether the restraints on Horse would really hold up if he tried to fight back, but it was the best we could do given the circumstance. At the very least, Horse looked content. Bunny noticeably less so, but he wasn't speaking up. I realized it might be in poor taste to leave them tied up in the same room as the charred corpse. But, eh, they were already there. A little late for that.
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Nov 29, 2022 01:59
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Um, did we just send Bunny and Horse to their deaths? Because if they're tied to their chairs and in the same room, they can't exactly be alone to make a move when the round ends, even if they can reach their tablets.
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Nov 29, 2022 03:06
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Rooster's dialogue this update is the epitome of:
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Nov 29, 2022 03:09
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Oh dear, who could have possibly foreseen this event occurring!? That said, given the whole this being a planned murder involving the ritual, I'm kind of surprised no one is throwing the finger at the people who knew about and set up the ritual. That feels like an important detail.
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Nov 29, 2022 03:10
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Was that little segue into scaphism really necessary, Mouse?Mix. posted:Tiger worked fast. Before I knew it, Bunny and Horse were tied tightly to their chairs. Honestly, I was doubtful about whether the restraints on Horse would really hold up if he tried to fight back, but it was the best we could do given the circumstance. At the very least, Horse looked content. Bunny noticeably less so, but he wasn't speaking up. Wait. Am I supposed to believe that nobody objected to tying two people up--at least one of whom is almost certainly innocent, unless one assumes the killer has an accomplice--in the same room as the practically-still-smoking corpse of Ox!? Not even Bunny or Horse were like "Hey guys, I'm cool with the whole getting-tied-up thing and all, but could we maybe pick a different room? One that smells less like death?" Nobody even thought about it until they were already tied up? Tiger might move fast and all, but she's not fast enough that nobody would have time to think "Hey, maybe we should pick a room without a corpse in it." Though I guess everyone was just fine standing around and chatting in the room next to Ox's body, so maybe they all just got desensitized real fast. FoolyCharged posted:That said, given the whole this being a planned murder involving the ritual, I'm kind of surprised no one is throwing the finger at the people who knew about and set up the ritual. That feels like an important detail. Yeah... given that the note describing the ritual specifically mentioned "Mouse" (when the Zodiac animal is a Rat, and Mouse is only Mouse because she prefers being called "Mouse" to "Rat") and Mouse was one of the people to find the ritual, she seems like she ought to come under suspicion as potentially creating the ritual herself.
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Nov 29, 2022 03:37
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PepperedMoth posted:Yeah... given that the note describing the ritual specifically mentioned "Mouse" (when the Zodiac animal is a Rat, and Mouse is only Mouse because she prefers being called "Mouse" to "Rat") and Mouse was one of the people to find the ritual, she seems like she ought to come under suspicion as potentially creating the ritual herself. Mouse isn't a suspect for the same reason Rooster isn't. They're each other's alibi. Now it could have been a two man job, but as far as they know, there's no real reason to assume there's a third traitor, given Monkey has confessed to being one already.
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Nov 29, 2022 04:38
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Mouse posted:the order should be me, Ox, Tiger, Bunny, Dragon, Snake, Sheep, Horse, Rooster, Monkey, Dog, Pig, back to me. Bunny posted:Horse, you can see where we're coming from though, right? Both Rooster and Sheep have confirmed you were standing up when things went down, you admitted it yourself. Based on this, Horse was in the process of doing the ritual. Mouse, Ox, Tiger, Bunny, Dragon, Snake, and Sheep had already gone. I think Sheep did the fire trick because she went just before Horse, and anything she had set up could've triggered shortly after she returned to her place in the circle. There was the whole order swapping thing too between Sheep and Monkey. The original circle order would've been with Sheep next to Monkey. Assuming they're working together as DESPERATE and CONTENT, then that would explain why they couldn't be near each other. Otherwise, everyone would just blame Monkey, who is already on thin ice as a traitor. Still, why roast Ox? It only takes out 1 person. Maybe the reason is that he had the authority (audacity?) to contradict Monkey earlier in the route, so she had to take him out. Maybe there's layers to this plan. If Monkey has made Rooster and Pig into her allies, they've nonlethally taken out Horse and Bunny as well. Pig posted:Um, Mouse? Don't we need someone to go and turn off the lights? Rooster posted:You're close to the light switch Bunny, why don't you be a doll and handle that for us?
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Nov 29, 2022 06:45
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The ritual mentioning Mouse instead of Rat suggests that either it was set up by another player or that the mastermind is present in the building and capable of setting things up on the fly--but the other routes haven't suggested the latter thus far (in fact, all signs point to "Brian" being a recording). So, the most likely scenario is that this was a trap set up by another player. Monkey is out because she's been tied up; she would have had no time to set this up after getting her motive to do so. The most likely thus far seems Sheep--"wolf in sheep's clothing" and all that, plus we know from previous routes that Horse seems willing to cover for/protect Sheep for some reason, so it's possible he's intentionally taking a fall here.
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Nov 29, 2022 15:22
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Actually, if we assume Rooster is in on it, then this whole setup becomes even more obvious: First, we have this: Come, I was just about to check out this classroom.So HE leads Mouse to that classroom. Then, he opens the safe by himself...because he already knows the combination. He's also the one to suggest not turning off the lights AND the one who points out stars and stuff for the ritual including the dang oil. I think it's safe to say that pig and rooster are absolutely, 200% in on it, and sheep/monkey are sus as gently caress as well. And how do we know Rooster wasn't just a lucky guesser about oil? by this quote when Mouse finds the oil canister. quote:Normally it'd be a lot harder, but this canister had already been opened before. I dipped the bucket in, and before I knew it, it was filled with something.
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Nov 29, 2022 15:41
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 [BGM: Cock a Doodle Doo] So, that takes care of that. Before we proceed, might I re-suggest that we move in pairs? I know we may seem less at risk than before, but my position on it hasn't changed.This time, nobody really wanted to fight Monkey on this. I guess seeing a dead body in person made more people value security. Plus, the biggest opponent of that proposal was now lying on the floor. He wasn't in any position to be offering complaints.  Very well then, we'll group up. I'll go with Dragon. The hell you will! What, not a fan of my company? Trust me, I'm a great conversationalist, many can attest. That's a negative in my book. Why do you even want to go with me, anyways? In the case that I'm assaulted, I figured I'd choose the person who'd be most adequate to protect me. Uh, hello, I'm right here. I stand by what I said. You know what? Fine. You can tag along, just learn to shut up. Alright! Fine then. I guess I'll go with Sheep. U-um, okay then. That's okay with me. Pig and I can watch Monkey. It would be a pain to tie her up again, and she's already proven her worth. How thoughtful of you to say. I have no objection with this arrangement. Me neither, being with a group of 3 works just fine for me. The math works for me better like that! Guess that means you're with me, Mouse. Guess that means you're with me, Dog. You don't sound enthused. Matching your level. Fair enough. Um, guys? One little objection that I'm just realizing- how exactly are we supposed to input our moves for the rounds if we're tied up? Right. If we are tied up, we will be unable to input our moves. Then we shall be executed. Which, gotta say, I don't love.poo poo, they were right. Oh, right, that is an issue, isn't it? You know what, Mouse and I will make sure to swing by at the end of every round to let you handle it. That cool with you, Mouse? Yeah, uh, sure, but... Monkey, you were tied up too. What happened with you? Ah, right, that. Luckily, Ox came to my aid before it was an issue. He allowed me to use my tablet freely before the end of each round. I must say, it was a good thing, too. Had no one realized it, I would've been executed in a quite unfortunate manner. When I realized my predicament, I was already tied up. Needless to say, I was quite stressed before Ox showed up. Oh, uh, sorry about that. It is in the past. Now, let us face the future. Let's.And just like that, the search of the school resumed once more. It was cruel to think that just a few minutes ago, I thought there'd be no need to do this anymore. But that shortcut had literally gone up in flames. Now we had to fear and scramble once more. Why? It had to be the desperate personality. They must have done it to avoid an instant loss. But then, why kill Ox? That was a completely unnecessary step that only brought more suspicion. If they wanted to stop the ritual, there must've been easier methods. For instance... I hadn't thought about it before, but couldn't someone have pricked their finger, but simply not bled into the bucket? If they did that, it would be near impossible to tell who had deviated. Well, there's a chance the music would've instantly ended the moment the ritual had conclusively failed. Something similar likely happened this time. Still, there had to be other ways. [BGM: Dog Days]  No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't rationalize things. Boy, do you look depressed.I looked up at Dog. We had been looking through an administration office on the second floor. Well, I mean, duh. We were so close. We were almost done with this, and then it all just got hosed up! Why wouldn't I be sad? No no, it makes sense. It's just bringing the atmosphere down in here. Bringing the atmosphere down? I gotta say Dog, you don't look particularly bothered by all of this. You barely spoke up back there. Yeah, well. You know what your issue is? What? You have hope. Oh brother. No no, actually hear me out. I learned long ago that you can really let a lot of emotions go to the wayside. And the one that hurt me the least to let go was hope. It's a functionless feeling. I really don't need this conversation from some washed up emo. Yeah, yeah, I get that I'm not the person you would trust on something like this. But actually think about it for a second. What does hope ever get you? It's not a particularly enjoyable emotion all on its own. It's not unpleasant, but it's no substitute for actual happiness. But the main function of it is to create expectations. Expectations that are either fulfilled, which will make you content. Or they won't be fulfilled, and you'll be crushed. Yeah, that is how life works, Dog. Very insightful. I'm just saying, if you don't bother with the expectations in the first place, you learn to take things for how they are. You never get let down. I'm not saying to not try things, to improve things. When things go well, savor it! But don't expect things to go well. That way, when they don't, you can just laugh at it. You know, it's funny. You almost sound convincing. Almost convincing, huh? You must've caught me on a good day. Anyways, the round end isn't too long from now. Wanna go check on Bunny and Horse? Let's.And just like that, we made our way back to the third floor. As we opened the classroom door, I expected Bunny to be in a rather sour mood. … [BGM: Rabid Rabbit]  What the... What the hell?! Ah... huh. I suppose this is a pretty good counterpoint. Sometimes, you think you don't have any expectations, and life can still shoot lower. Well, not much you can do about that, though. Would you shut up! Horse is dead!Indeed, as surprising as it was, Horse's body was splayed on the floor, on top of his toppled chair. Cause of death was obvious- a bullet right through his head. Why hadn't I heard a gunshot? Even more surprising than Horse was Bunny. [BGM: Lucky Foot]  All that was left of him was the ropes that had previously been tied around him. In other words, he was gone. This isn't good. Heh, boy oh boy, is this not good. Could you not laugh? Sorry. ...I'm actually sorry. Just a different way of coping. Bunny... he must have gotten free, killed Horse, and escaped! So I guess he really did kill Ox then? Weird. I wasn't paying too much attention, but I thought Pig's story didn't make much sense. I don't know whether or not Bunny killed Ox. I do know he's loose and likely dangerous. Indeed. Although... Although? Ah, it's nothing. You can't just say that! I mean, I can. Just spit out what you meant to say. Okay okay, jeez. All I was gonna say is that it's kind of weird that Horse's ropes were untied. After all, he was probably shot before he was untied, right? So then why untie a corpse? Good point. But it probably doesn't really matter all that much, so let's forget that for now. Like you said, the bigger point is the fact that Bunny's gone missing. Want to alert the others?Did I? Hold on, just... just wait a second. Okay, proceeding to wait a second.Dog seemed in no rush to alert the others. It was disturbing how passe he was acting about this, but for the time that worked to my advantage. Before, it didn't seem like such a big deal. However, now that we have confirmed the fact that there are more killings, we need to look at what happened with Ox closer. Right now, the obvious assumption would be that the killer is Bunny. But does that make sense? I dunno. Does it? I don't think so. See, the problem with Bunny being the culprit is that the way Pig proposed it, he had no direct control of when the fire started. However, thinking back, the music suddenly got super loud before things went down, not after. That can't be a coincidence. Hey, you're right. Also, we have to factor in the noises that happened when things went down. For the sake of my argument, Ox's shout of surprise could be him feeling the static shock happening below him. But I heard something else, something that sounded a lot like oil landing on Ox. So you're saying Horse was the culprit? I'm not saying that. If we're under the assumption that Horse did it, it doesn't make sense for Bunny to kill Horse and flee. So what are you saying? I'm saying Bunny might not have escaped. He might also be dead.I let the words hang in the air. I expected some acknowledgment from Dog, perhaps a look of surprise. But instead, he looked me in the eyes and answered me at my own level. If that's the case, Mouse, then why kill Horse? Huh? Your theory goes that if Bunny isn't the killer, and neither is Horse, then it must be someone else. Someone else killed Horse, and then hid Bunny's body to make it look like he escaped. Am I understanding you correctly? That's the gist of what I'm getting at, yeah. But everyone agreed that the suspicions cast on Horse held a lot more water than those cast on Bunny. People would buy Horse killing Bunny and escaping as the true killer a lot better than they'd buy Bunny doing that. So why set it up like this?I couldn't give Dog the answer he looked for. It was a minor problem, but a surprisingly critical one. What could the explanation be? So, now can we go tell the others?I thought some more about the ritual. How... how perfect a crime it was. How well it was set up. And yet, how amateurish certain elements of it felt. That contrast... If the killer wasn't Horse, and it wasn't Bunny, there had to be someone else who could've poured oil on Ox and lit him on fire. Thinking about the setup, there was one place I'd need to check in order to uncover the full truth of this incident. 
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Dec 1, 2022 01:21
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Above the body if it was automated, then the pouring had to come from above.
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Dec 1, 2022 01:41
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On the other hand, above the body should have been seen by everyone afterwards. Meanwhile nobody has actually touched Ox since the killing which means that any other injuries or mechanisms masked by his fall haven't been observed. Of course using my meta knowledge from having played games before.... Somewhere else that the game hasn't specified because it could give it away? That's sus as hell.
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Dec 1, 2022 03:08
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I'd argue it's either below the body or somewhere else, that somewhere else being the classroom's closet. We know Snake had a key to it, so one has to wonder if that's where it comes into play.
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Dec 1, 2022 08:51
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Fire is quite destructive, so it should be hard to find something below Ox's body. It's unclear what above the body means; it could mean the literal "top" of Ox's charred corpse, or it could imply a hidden mechanism on the ceiling. It's hard for me to tell. In the end, I think Mouse should look somewhere else. I don't think Mouse did a great job searching the room with Rooster earlier; when opening the safe and setting up the ritual, he practically found everything for her and cut her off before she could search the room deeply. Almost like there was something hidden he didn't want her to find.
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Dec 1, 2022 09:33
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I'm going to say above the body. 'Somewhere else' feels too vague, and I don't think it was was mentioned whether anyone paid attention to the ceiling, whereas people would have been paying attention to the floor as part of setting up the ritual. As to who the culprit is, I'm still not sure. The ritual felt like a very convoluted way to kill just one person whether it was fake or real and hijacked, but then next they go for a straightforward approach and shoot Horse. As mentioned Rooster is almost certainly in on it, but that's all I can tell. There's also the issue of the note being written in blood. Was anyone noticeably hiding anything like an injury before the note was found?
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Dec 1, 2022 09:56
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Man, Mouse really is in a sour mood this route. Is it just because of Monkey? I'm not even following the mystery this time but I'm gonna go above. I do like the Snake/cabinet theory but this isn't his route, so
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Dec 1, 2022 14:11
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Sybot posted:I'm going to say above the body. 'Somewhere else' feels too vague, and I don't think it was was mentioned whether anyone paid attention to the ceiling, whereas people would have been paying attention to the floor as part of setting up the ritual. It wouldn't need to be a visible injury; the note was probably written with the very needle that was with it, so any wound would be so tiny as to not be noticed. And yeah, it increasingly seems like Rooster probably set this all up from the start. I'm going to say above the body; people don't tend to look up without good reason, and nobody was in a rush to spend a lot of time in the room or thoroughly inspect it. Something attached to the ceiling would have gone unnoticed...except by the people tied up in the room, no doubt, which is why they had to be killed.
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Dec 1, 2022 14:42
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