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I have no idea. Best I can say is that Rooster is definitely not the killer. He was with us when the Butcher's Knife announcement went off. Pig was strangled, and apparently while people were around, somehow. The order of time on that incident is pretty unclear, but I have a hard time believing Sheep could have managed to do that without anyone noticing. Monkey probably couldn't either? Agreed on the gunshot not necessarily clearing anyone who was with us, the water and string implies shenanigans happened, but the people with us were Ox and Bunny, who aren't currently suspects anyway, as well as Sheep. What I keep coming back to, is the blood on Pig. Pig was strangled and then stabbed, and that blood must have gotten on the killer. There was three restroom on the first floor to clean oneself off, one in the cafetoria, which Tiger was using to vote, two in locker rooms that Snake and Dragon was voting in. Dragon is obviously not a suspect, being dead. Snake does have a track record of setting up locked room murders and strangling people...... 
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Dec 23, 2022 19:28
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FoolyCharged posted:I'm sticking with sheep. The ominous pointing out of her immediate, solo departure from the crime scene, the fact that she's on the list at all given she was with us when the gunshot went off, and the fact that the clues we found make me think a rube Goldberg with the string pulling the trigger. Ohh I didn't catch the Rube Goldberg setup. Yeah, that'd make sense. I'm gonna lock in Sheep. Actually, that explains why the gunshot missed--she tried the trick setup, failed, and had to quickly finish the job (hence misdirecting us to the 3rd floor, and the knife hackjob--she didn't want to get her hands dirty, and Dragon's probably not an easy target to take down even if you've got the element of surprise).
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Dec 23, 2022 19:32
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mycelia posted:Ohh I didn't catch the Rube Goldberg setup. Yeah, that'd make sense. I'm gonna lock in Sheep. Actually, that explains why the gunshot missed--she tried the trick setup, failed, and had to quickly finish the job (hence misdirecting us to the 3rd floor, and the knife hackjob--she didn't want to get her hands dirty, and Dragon's probably not an easy target to take down even if you've got the element of surprise). Ooh, I didn't catch that Sheep directed us to the third floor. I'm still confused about Pig's death, but that's a good point.
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Dec 23, 2022 19:45
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Order of events for Pig's death, as far as I can tell: -Everyone sans Dog returns to the Cafeteria following Horse's death -Everyone splits up to vote -[Pig dies?] -Regroup in the Cafeteria; Pig is missing -Everyone looks for Pig, except for Tiger guarding the weapons -[Pig's corpse is moved to the cafeteria?] -Tiger and Bunny find Pig's corpse Tiger guarding the weapons cache is the big problem. ...wait. Tiger's the one who has a voice activated tablet, right? What if Tiger didn't see the murder because she's (if not fully, at least somewhat) blind? Anyone could have done it if they were quiet enough. Of course, you'd have to know that in the first place... eta: now I'm doing a deep dive on previous posts, Tiger claims to have seen Morris Sr. carrying the murder weapon, which assuming she's not lying puts a dent in my theory. The actual reason I went looking was to check Sheep's involvement; she was directly responsible for Morris Sr. getting arrested, which couuuuld be the reason she keeps freaking out about it being "her fault", but something's fishy. mycelia fucked around with this message at 21:57 on Dec 23, 2022 |
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Dec 23, 2022 21:28
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Well let's go over them: We can eliminate dog, snake and rooster because we know it isn't their route. Meta-gaming and cheaty but since the game acknowledges the meta elements, not unfair. This leaves us with Tiger, Sheep and Monkey as our options. Monkey is unlikely to be the personality for meta reasons, since we know her reaction to the personality reveal. So, we are down to Tiger vs Sheep and Sheep has been awfully prominent...and kinda pushy. Well let's say Shoop did it.
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Dec 23, 2022 21:48
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Agreed on Sheep. Her directing Mouse to the wrong floor settled the decision for me.
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Dec 23, 2022 21:55
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I don't necessarily think it's impossible for a person to be a killer on several routes. The Rooster route, he wasn't even one of the personality assigned to be a traitor, he just did that stuff on his own. I think Tiger being the killer helps clear up how the killer was able to eliminate Pig without staying bloody, if the restrooms are involved, and the game made a point of saying there were three on this particular floor, and also who were in the area for all restrooms. Dragon cannot be the killer, she is already dead, Snake could have done it, and he loves locked room mysteries, but he has no compelling reason to do it this route. Which leaves the restroom Tiger has said she used and no one else definitely could have used to clean up themselves. Plus, she has an alibi, of sort, without anyone actually being able to verify it.
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Dec 23, 2022 21:56
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I'm going to have to say it's Sheep. Someone else already did explain why it couldn't be Dog, Snake, Rooster or Monkey so I will skip that. There are clues at the scene - water and string and they heard a gunshot earlier. It sounds like a Rube Goldberg machine thing. Tiger is likely not smart enough to set up such a machine - she would likely rather use physical confrontations. She's one of the strongest characters in the game (Dog targeted her with the Taming Whip second after all, after Horse, the strongest character). Her guarding the weapons cache is likely just a ploy for the authors to throw us off a tad. That leaves Sheep as the only real suspect. But then again I am metagaming quite a bit with this. Sketchie fucked around with this message at 22:11 on Dec 23, 2022 |
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Dec 23, 2022 22:07
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"People keep getting killed while they're alone... let's split up, lol!"
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Dec 23, 2022 22:45
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wologar posted:"People keep getting killed while they're alone... let's split up, lol!" Tiger posted:
this will not be the last time the gang does some really stupid stuff in response to a death, i can tell you that much
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Dec 23, 2022 22:55
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mycelia posted:eta: now I'm doing a deep dive on previous posts, Tiger claims to have seen Morris Sr. carrying the murder weapon, which assuming she's not lying puts a dent in my theory. The actual reason I went looking was to check Sheep's involvement; she was directly responsible for Morris Sr. getting arrested, which couuuuld be the reason she keeps freaking out about it being "her fault", but something's fishy. She was also able to play darts in Dog's route, which would require her to be able to see the board. She may be extremely short-sighted, but I don't think that would prevent her from being able to use a tablet.
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Dec 23, 2022 23:22
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Mix. posted:this will not be the last time the gang does some really stupid stuff in response to a death, i can tell you that much There's also a huge amount of time pressure. This doesn't take place over days - it takes place over a matter of hours. Time spent bickering and planning is time not spent searching for the things that let you live, but time not spent bickering and planning allows the traitors to run unchecked. They could all sit down and basically play a game of Resistance, identify the traitors, and then all die anyway because they failed to secure a win condition in the interim.
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Dec 23, 2022 23:33
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Sybot posted:Agreed on Sheep. Her directing Mouse to the wrong floor settled the decision for me. Not just steering mouse to a particular floor, she's also been pretty openly pushing the investigation in certain directions. She's been waving red flags this entire path.
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Dec 23, 2022 23:41
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I agree about Sheep raising flags, especially since she could've broken after seeing Horse's body. Still, I have not been able to make sense of these clues, so I'm curious about how everything went down.
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Dec 24, 2022 03:01
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also you guys tied on the poll again  but once again its two routes that are honestly pretty fine to do back to back so i'll just do what i did again lmao, not a huge deal
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Dec 24, 2022 03:16
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 It's time to reveal who the person behind the killings is- or at least, who the most likely person is.  Without further ado, that person is...[BGM: Silence]   Sheep? Yeah... Now that I'm thinking about it, it's gotta be Sheep. It's unbelievable, I know, I don't know why she'd do it, but she's our butcher. Why? I'll explain everything in a minute, but first I want to meet up with Sheep. Let's try and find her, and then I'll settle everything once and for all. ...Okay. If you say so. I trust you. We walked through the school, looking for Sheep. Eventually, we ran across Monkey, who offered to join us. We accepted. Seeing as we were about to confront the killer, I didn't mind the extra backup. As I looked for her, I couldn't help but despair. I didn't know Sheep, sure, but she seemed so meek. So nice. I didn't think she could hurt a fly. So how, then, could she go on a killing spree like this? I needed to know. Eventually, we found her curled up in a classroom on the first floor.  Mouse!  Ox, Monkey. What are you all doing here? Sheep. I don't want to waste time or play games. This is a dead serious matter, one I just don't have it in me to joke about.[BGM: That Pesky Rodent]  Why did you kill Dragon? Kill Pig, kill Horse? Please, tell me. Mouse? Wh-what are you talking about! I would never. I could never- You're not going to fool me Sheep. I suggest you just confess now. Confess to what? Mouse, I don't know what you're talking about. It's going to have to be like this then, is it? Very well, I'll make you confess. And then I'll make you explain yourself. Make me confess? Y-You're going to torture me?! Please, I'm innocent, I swear! I'm not going to torture you, Sheep. Though maybe this'll be like torture to you, if you still have a conscience. No, I'm going to prove why you have to be the killer. Go ahead. I'd love to hear your reasoning. Very well then, let's start with the matter of Horse's death. While I can't prove anything, there's one element that we haven't paid attention that keenly points the suspicion in your direction. And what would that be? That's right, it's another deduction phase! You didn't think Snake was gonna be the only person to get one, did you? Similarly to Snake's deduction, it's kind of hard to take a vote on this kind of thing without giving away the reveals in the process, so we're just going to get this deduction right like we did with Snake, and show the wrong answers in the bonus update.Therefore, the thing that points to Sheep in this case is... When you arrived at the cafeteria. What does that have to do with anything? It has a lot to do with things, actually. Because when you look at it, not a lot of people could've killed Horse. Tiger was guarding weapons, Ox and Snake returned very quickly, and Pig and Rooster were with me the whole time. Also, Dragon and Bunny arrived together. While that doesn't mean they were necessarily together all the time before that, it certainly makes it less likely either had the time to kill Horse. You, however, arrived on your own after quite a bit of time. That's a very suspicious timing, I have to say. That doesn't prove anything! No? I think it's a pretty big indicator. If we had given it any amount of thought at the time, we would have concluded that the main suspects should've been you, Monkey, and Dog. But fine, you won't take that as evidence. Fair enough. Let's move onto Pig's death. You killed Pig when everyone left to input actions for the fourth round. In fact, you had already input your action, didn't you? I did? Yeah, you did.[BGM: Constriction]  I thought it was strange how no one I talked to saw where either you or Pig went to input your actions. That's because neither of you actually left the cafeteria, isn't that right? As everyone started to walk away, you called her over into the kitchen, saying you had something important to say to her. That's where you killed her. But Mouse, her body was found behind that pillar! Yeah, but there was no blood on the floor behind that pillar, despite the knife clearly spilling a lot of blood. She was actually stabbed in the kitchen, and you just wiped away the blood there, isn't that right? But as you just said, the killer would've gotten a bunch of blood on themselves! I don't have any blood on me! And I never had a chance to clean up in a restroom, there wasn't enough time and other people were occupying the main ones. I said blood would spill out, I didn't say blood had to get on the killer. What are you talking about, Mouse? There's actually a way to stab someone to death without getting any blood on you. Before luring Pig over to the kitchen, you already had the necessary tools in your pocket. A kitchen knife, which is the actual murder weapon. A bunch of napkins to wipe away the blood. And... a handful of plastic baggies. Plastic baggies?! The same plastic baggies found in that very kitchen. You told Pig to look at something, maybe to bend down. Then you quickly stuffed both of your hands in plastic baggies, turning them into makeshift gloves. From behind you brought the knife around Pig's body, and with both hands you violently pulled inwards, fatally stabbing her. As she cried out, you moved both of your covered hands over her mouth to silence her. It sure got a lot of blood on her clothes, but it only spilled onto your hands, which were being covered by plastic bags. Then you put both the plastic bags on your hands and the knife into a third plastic bag, and began quickly wiping away most of the blood with the napkins. When you wiped away enough to hide the crime scene at a glance, you put the bloody napkins in that bag, and then hid that bag of evidence in your pocket. With that taken care of, you promptly exited the kitchen like nothing happened. If you were efficient, this whole thing could take less than two minutes. Mouse, that's totally ridiculous! I thought you said Pig was strangled to death! I couldn't do that! No Sheep, that's just what you wanted me to think. In truth, you just choked her neck after she was dead, didn't you?  Mouse, that's possibly plausible, if incredibly risky, but if I understood correctly, a core mystery was how the body ended up behind a certain pillar, correct? I do not believe this explanation accounts for that. I haven't. Because Sheep wasn't done taking risks. You see, we were quite scattered throughout the cafeteria when the fourth round results began to be displayed. But those results drew everyone's attention to one place. Sheep, who had been sitting in the back of the cafeteria, was able to take advantage of this distraction. She quickly and quietly walked over to the kitchen and simply dragged Pig's body from behind the kitchen door to behind the pillar. There's no way I could do all of that! Oh, but you could. It's possible, I'll grant you. But it's incredibly risky. Why would Sheep go through all that trouble? Murder's a risky business, Ox. There's always a chance things could go wrong. Sheep smartly realized that if people kept dying, there'd be some who wanted to investigate things. And she also realized that if we stopped for a second to think about Horse's murder, she'd already been under incredible scrutiny, due to the fact that she was one of few people without an alibi. And, in fact, I'm willing to bet if we had dug even deeper into that, there'd have been some damning evidence which proved it was her. Her only chance to get out of this was to cause a murder so confusing that our attention would be diverted. And a murder this confusing would sew chaos, giving her more opportunities to attack us, one by one. AAAGH! So what?! Mouse, you've just been bullying me this whole time, without any evidence. Where's your evidence, show me some evidence! I'm getting there. Really? Then how about we 'get' to Dragon's murder, huh? How are you gonna explain that? B-b-because I was with you the whole time when that happened. Not entirely true. When Mouse rushed off, we all chased behind her. However, we were far from a unified front. Now that I think about it, I don't think I saw you for a while there. You easily could have slipped away to commit murder. M-maybe, but I wouldn't have had nearly enough time to wash the blood off myself, right? Plus, Mouse only started running because the real killer had just fired a pistol at Dragon! You're half right, Sheep. You wouldn't have had enough time to wash the blood off. But that's because you didn't need to. Because you employed a very nasty trick with this murder. The truth of the matter is... the gun was made to fire on its own! Made to fire on its own? That's not possible, what are you talking about? It actually is. In fact, it just requires a very simple tool also found in the cafeteria. A tool I found at the scene of the crime. Mouse, what are you talking about? We didn't find anything at the scene of the crime. We found something alright. Water. Or should I say... ice? Ice? Ice? The contraption was simple. Using the string we found sitting in the classroom, the tape dispenser, some ice and the gun, it wouldn't be difficult to make a contraption where the gun would fire on its own after an unknown amount of time. Simply wrap one end of the string around the gun's trigger, then tape the other end fo the top of the door frame.Set the gun precariously on top of the door, using ice as a platform. If you put it in the right place, as the ice melts, the gun would be liable to fall down, causing the string to pull the trigger and the gun to fire wildly. But with that sort of thing, there'd be absolutely no control over where the gun fired. True, but Sheep probably felt she could work with whatever result. She'd set Dragon's body up in some way where it's plausible the shot could've aimed at her. But then how could she know where Dragon would be? She knew because Dragon was already dead. What? Dragon was actually killed as early as when we were looking for Pig. Remember, no one ever saw her since. I imagine Sheep convinced Dragon to go along with her in the search. Dragon came across as crass, but I think she was the type to protect someone like Sheep. Then, when they got to that classroom, Sheep stabbed Dragon from behind with the knife. Hold on a minute, if that happened, blood would get everywhere! Normally, yes. However, remember the cause of death this time: it was a cut windpipe. Not blood loss. Meaning that the knife didn't actually have to be removed from the wound right away. Most blood comes out when the weapon is pulled out of the body, so whatever blood specks did appear were likely minimal.  She dragged Dragon's body inside the classroom, and prayed that no one would bother checking that room. Then she set up her gun ploy and left. That's probably around the time when I found Dragon's body. No, no, no, no, no... Quit it, enough! Give me real evidence! Sheep couldn't have been sure when the gun would fire, so she decided to make sure she'd have an alibi no matter what. She volunteered to help me with the investigation of Pig's death. Then, eventually, the gun fired. There was one trick to Sheep's plan: she needed to be the first to find the body. That's why she implemented a double layer of subterfuge.  She said 'I think the shot came from the third floor'. Since we were in a panic, we took that guess as gospel truth, and all made our way that way. Except... you didn't, did you? You ran over, yanked the gun and the string away, dragged Dragon to a suitable location near where the gun was fired, and pulled the knife out. All in all, if you were efficient about it, this clean up could last as quick as a minute, maybe even quicker. Good thing you moved fast. I'm guessing just as you exited down one hallway Monkey was running towards the body from the other. No evidence! Not real evidence! That could be anybody! But would anybody stand to gain from such a setup? Seeing as there's no other reasonable explanation for why the top of the door would be wet like that, I'm confident in my theory on how the gun was fired. And Sheep, you were the only one who benefited from an alibi at the time the shot went off. Well, I guess Ox, Bunny and I all did as well, but we all can't be the culprit. So how about it, Sheep? Who else could it be but you? How do you know the shot was fired to gain an alibi? Huh? You can't prove that, can you? I can. In the case of Horse's death, we didn't hear the gunshot. Why? I'm guessing this pistol had a silencer on it. That's the only explanation. In that case, why wasn't the silencer on in this case? I can only imagine it was to make sure people heard this shot. You're not... Not proof! Not evidence! Oh? You still deny it? What could possibly make you confess at this point? EVIDENCE!Before I could respond, Sheep started to move. She started to pull something out of her pocket. But at this point, I was expecting it. I moved gracefully towards her, and just as she pulled the gun out I grabbed that hand and pushed it away. Since I had closed the distance, I used that momentum to knee her right in the stomach. Sheep fell to the ground, but that didn't stop her. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a dagger, but at this point I had already grabbed the pistol which had fallen on the floor and aimed it at her.  As for evidence, I figured that you probably still had the gun on you after you collected it from the scene of Dragon's death. Of course, if you were really smart, you might've just hid it somewhere nearby. If you had let me search you and I hadn't found this, I probably would've started to question if I was really right. But now? It's over Sheep. Just admit it. I'm not... quit looking at me like that. It's not my fault. It's not my... I just wanted to survive... Please, please, stop it, cut it out!!From there, Sheep burst into tears. No one in the room felt any pity for her. How could we? After all, she had killed three people in the span of a single day. All we did was wait for her to compose herself, to explain herself, to talk about why she had done what she did.
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Dec 27, 2022 02:02
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Man, sheep really channeled an ace attorney antagonist there
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Dec 27, 2022 06:11
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FoolyCharged posted:Man, sheep really channeled an ace attorney antagonist there Hah, my first thought was "this really turned into a Phoenix Wright game, huh?"
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Dec 27, 2022 06:17
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Wow, based on this breakdown, this was Mouse's fault. It wasn't Horse's death; it was Mouse telling Sheep to be wary of others that broke her.
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Dec 27, 2022 11:21
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Three people is generous, really; Dog is almost certainly dead somewhere as well given how long it's been since we've seen him, unless he's just been really determined to hide and wait this one out. The actual big worry is, has Sheep already implemented her move for the round and cut enough bodies to cross the finish line?
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Dec 27, 2022 16:39
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ZCKaiser posted:Three people is generous, really; Dog is almost certainly dead somewhere as well given how long it's been since we've seen him, unless he's just been really determined to hide and wait this one out. The actual big worry is, has Sheep already implemented her move for the round and cut enough bodies to cross the finish line? Right now they are 20 spaces away. Keep in mind that you can only do one action a turn (if I understood Jade Emperor's wording when he explained it at the start of the story): RUN, ACT, CONFESS and ITEM. Sheep has already slashed Horse, Pig and Dragon, and it's pretty certain that Dog has been slashed as well. That would give her 12 spaces, leaving her with 8 spaces to go. RUN will not help her in this context, but this is likely her second best action, interestingly enough. I will explain further below. ACT will not work either, she will just simply remain as she is due to Sweet Sleep and it will arise suspicion from others. She can CONFESS, and depending on how effective her confession is, she can move another 5 spaces, leaving her with just 3 left. Minor Trinkets under ITEM and will not really do anything for her as it would only allow her to move one space as no one else has used it - unless, of course, she has somehow convinced 2 others to use their minor trinkets which would allow her to move exactly 3 spaces, but I doubt it. Sheep's Clothing does not help her either. This is not an optimal path for her. Her plan was likely to kill and slash 5 corpses and then CONFESS her way to the finish but Mouse has stopped her in time. If she could not kill someone else and slash their corpse in time and Mouse has not outed her yet, she would simply just RUN and would have more time to carry out her plan. I could be wrong, but that's the conclusion I could make so take it with a grain of salt.
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Dec 28, 2022 06:27
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Sketchie posted:She can CONFESS, and depending on how effective her confession is, she can move another 5 spaces, leaving her with just 3 left.
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Dec 28, 2022 07:25
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So, idly, since we've had some time to sit away from the routes where they're being The Worst Versions Of Themselves, how do you all feel about Dog and Snake now, compared to when we started?
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Dec 28, 2022 07:32
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TheMaskedReader posted:I just realized - Confess has literally never come up in any of the routes thus far, which is pretty funny to me! Everyone just going "yeah that's way too risky" and so not bothering with it. LMAO. It's less "too risky" and more "the plan is for everyone to tie and random movement from confession does not help that"
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Dec 28, 2022 08:44
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Sketchie posted:Her plan was likely to kill and slash 5 corpses and then CONFESS her way to the finish but Mouse has stopped her in time. If she could not kill someone else and slash their corpse in time and Mouse has not outed her yet, she would simply just RUN and would have more time to carry out her plan. Unless Rooster, who we also haven't seen in a hot second, is dead too. (But probably not, I don't think Sheep would have had time to kill him unless she did it while Mouse and Ox were investigating Dragon's death.) TheMaskedReader posted:I just realized - Confess has literally never come up in any of the routes thus far, which is pretty funny to me! Everyone just going "yeah that's way too risky" and so not bothering with it. LMAO. In Snake's route, two of the contestants moved in ways they shouldn't have been able to at the end (Monkey and Rooster IIRC), so either they lied about their abilities or used the CONFESS action offscreen.
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Dec 28, 2022 14:43
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Junpei posted:So, idly, since we've had some time to sit away from the routes where they're being The Worst Versions Of Themselves, how do you all feel about Dog and Snake now, compared to when we started? Snake is the smarmy, think's-hes-smart, is-only-sometimes-right shithead archetype that I adore, and Dog...He's growing on me. Guy's just tired and depressed. I can relate to that. I don't think I strongly dislike any of the cast, really. Maybe it's just because I'm fresh off of Quantum Suicide, but even someone like Rooster is clearly meant to be a self-aggrandising rear end in a top hat, and I can appreciate that more than a character meant to be likable but written unlikably. Not looking at anyone, Yoshiki.
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Dec 28, 2022 19:46
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 content warning: discussion of child death, suicide [BGM: A True Foal]  I thought... I thought splitting up to look for Trinkets was dangerous. I wanted a better idea, where there wasn't the chance for things to go wrong. But then I realized, we didn't need to look for Minor Trinkets. We could use the ones we had. If we just all used our abilities in the right order, everyone could make it to the finish line and no one person would be able to get far ahead of the group. We could stick together in one room, with Tiger as a guard, and take turns inputting our designated move. But I realized that the math didn't quite work. There were too many people whose abilities didn't move fast enough. And then I remembered. I had the Sheep's Clothing. We had found it, Mouse. What does the Sheep's Clothing have to do with anything? If I had Horse's ability, things would work out. So I didn't think about it much, I just... acted. Without consulting the group. I used it, and became a copy of Horse. But then... then... Not only had my action changed, but so did my personality.  I was now a copy of Horse... I had the determined personality! What?! I realized this in the same room where I found a hidden pistol. I was freaking out, but then that announcement played on the pad. A butcher's knife? Was it Horse? I walked out of my room, and I saw Horse standing there. He was holding it. He wasn't looking at me, and... I panicked, and then, before I knew it I just... fired! I killed him. I tried to hide it, but Dog came across the scene and... There was an argument...Sheep started to mumble. She wasn't meeting any of our eyes. We could finish the story for ourselves. Dog, the unseen victim. If I didn't do something, everyone would blame me for those murders. But if I was the only witness... I'm pathetic. Sheep... So really, this was just one big accident? Don't give her that much credit. In the end, she just chose to put her own life above ours, and in doing so committed murder. It's sad, but it's not an excuse. Then, you think she should have simply accepted her fate? Accept death? Not many have that conviction. She did accept death. The deaths of every single other person in this school. Don't get me wrong, I can see where she's coming from in all of this. But I have trouble sympathizing. I do sympathize with her. I really do, but Sheep, even in that situation... What you did was wrong.She didn't speak after that. None of us did. Sheep didn't even try to escape. She probably knew it was pointless. Eventually, Snake wandered in the room. We explained the situation to him. He accepted it pretty easily. Bunny, too, after some time passed, he found us and joined us in the wait.  We input our actions for the fifth round, going one at a time. The group was talking about what to do next, but Sheep just sat silently. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, Sheep began to talk. [BGM: Mourning Crow]  I didn't use to stay to myself. You wouldn't think it, but I was actually a rebel when I was younger. A real troublemaker, had a number of friends. I thought it was cool how I had a really bad reputation in my neighborhood. Mostly I just wanted to emulate my two older sisters. What? What are you talking about all of a sudden? I kind of hated them, because they were often mean to me, and they used to blame me for everything. But they were cool, so I wanted to be like them. Then, one day, my parents left me in charge, let me look over my younger brother. I was such a good kid. That's why I disliked him. In fact, I hated him, but I never wanted... I thought he was smart enough that he didn't need me looking over him. I even let him take a bath by himself. Then my older sisters called. I don't know why, just to tease me I guess. They were really annoying, and we got into a heated argument. I completely wasn't paying attention. And then I heard a thud. I don't know what went through Smith's smart brain that made him think that running right after getting out of the bathtub was a good idea. I don't know what made him run. I guess I'll never know. But I can guess. It was probably because he was still a little kid. Because I was supposed to look after him, and I didn't. It's his fault that he ran. It's my fault that I didn't watch. It's my parents' fault for trusting me. And it's no one's fault that the slip ended up being at just the right angle to have him fall down the stairs, to have him twist his neck like that. The funeral was soon after. Sheep... You know the first thing I tried to do? Blame it on my older sisters. Well, that was only natural. After all, the first thing they did was try to blame it on me. But my mom wasn't hearing any of it. She wasn't hearing anything. She was onset by two fronts. On the one hand, the grief of losing her only son was wrecking her mind. On the other, she had to deal with the thunderstorm of rumors. Those rumors. Of the accident. Of how this troubled, disturbed kid was the only one around when the brother she hated slipped to his death. The atmosphere in the neighborhood around me took a serious turn. At best, I had let my brother die. At worst, I had made him die. It was horrible. I was in middle school at the time. From there, I turned my behavior around. I became an honor student, the cleanest of the clean, determined to live a virtuous life. Determined to not give any credence to the rumors which haunted and corrupted my parents. Didn't help much. When the news made it way to my school, life became hellish. Kids like to believe the more fun versions of stories. It was more fun if I killed him. And the worst bullies are the ones who think their victims deserve it. Come college time, I couldn't move far enough. My whole life, I've been sure to never give people a reason to blame me. My father moved on, but my mother never truly recovered from her son's death. She still doesn't know what to think of it. If I ever give her reason to believe I might've... she'd sooner die than believe that. That's my sin, isn't it, Brian? Brian?[BGM: Silence]  After Mr. Bowen was killed in that awful, terrible murder, I was one of the first suspects. Of course I was. After all, I was his secretary. I was there at the time of the murder. I was the one who found the collapsed security guard, the one who called the cops. I was the one with the biggest holes in my alibi, the one with all the keys, the one who knew him best. Eventually, my innocence was proven, but before that I was deathly afraid I might be labeled a murderer in all of this. If even that rumor got back... So when the cops asked me about Mr. Morris, told me that they were looking to make a case against him, I threw him as far under the bus as I could. Anything he might've known about he knew about. Any grudge he might've had against Mr. Bowen, he had it. Any character flaws he might've possessed, he had that and more. I believe that it was largely my depiction of him which made the cops so sure they had the right man. And that's why you put me through all this, isn't it, Brian? Unexpectedly, a voice came across on the speakers.  …So you admit that you slandered my father? Defiled his name, handed the police the noose? I didn't lie about a single thing in my testimony about those events. And your father wasn't a perfect angel, I only exaggerated, never created. And Brian, though you hate to admit it, it's clear that your father was in fact the person who killed Mr. Bowen, the evidence is overwhelming. But yes, I admit it. I'm responsible for getting him executed. And for that, I'm sorry. I'll never forget October 11th. The day this all started, when you think about it.We all waited a while for the Jade Emperor's response. None came. Instead, after a time, Sheep made a request. [BGM: Weak Pig]  Mouse... can you kill me? What? I want you to kill me, right here, right now. Why?! I know what's bound to happen. It'll be an execution. And the way Brian described it, it sounds awfully slow and painful. I'm a coward, Mouse. I don't want that. But we don't know that for sure! Maybe there's a way for you to survive! There isn't. I feel like I've been controlled by that past all my life. Now I feel nothing. Just end it. That's not... Even if you messed up, you don't deserve to die! Don't deserve to die? I'm pretty sure a serial murderer of four is worth the death penalty in most states. If this were taken to court, I doubt it. The circumstances are bizarre, but there are plenty of mitigating factors. At the very least, I imagine you'd get life in prison before a death penalty. I know I'm being selfish here Mouse, but... please. Just let me go peacefully. One gunshot to the head is all it takes. I looked to the others, hoping for input.  I think that we could all use a little forgiveness, right? If she wants to be shot, let her be shot. True. However, this raises an interesting moral quandary. Even if she will die anyways, to shoot her would be to kill her yourself. That can be... psychologically damaging. Morally, I'd say it's on par with assisted euthanasia. Honestly, I don't think it matters much one way or the other, though that may be a cold reading of the situation. I... I... ...I'll do it. Mouse! Are you sure? I am. Thank you Mouse. You were always nice to me. I'm glad....she was?? … I'm sorry, everyone. Maybe this'll make things right. More death never makes things right. I see. Then go ahead and shoot.For the first time, I realized just how heavy the pistol in my hands was. It was a slow, nervous process. Readying the gun. Aiming it. Right at her head, I pointed it. And then... Goodbye, Sheep. *bang!* …  Afterwards, the group left the room. No one wanted to look at that. Everyone gathered in the cafeteria. Rooster finally found the group. Apparently, he had been obliviously searching for Trinkets this whole time, and found a few. But that didn't really matter anymore. We all used the trinkets and moved as a group. At one point, Tiger left the group. She didn't explain herself, but no one felt like following her. We know why she took her leave. She must've wanted her final moments to herself. We had to respect that. Eventually, all the survivors crossed the line together. And the Jade Emperor announced our victory. He also announced the defeat of Sheep and Tiger. Two collars activated throughout the building. It was a very silent experience. [BGM: Silence]  I don't know if a cumulative hundred words passed amongst the group since leaving Sheep's room. But at least we were alive, right? That had to count for something. In the end, myself, Ox, Bunny, Snake, Monkey, and Rooster escaped. Half survived. But half died, for very poor reasons. It all felt... empty. I guess that was the Jade Emperor's goal. Well then, good work, Brian. You dick.  [Ending – 9 of Spades]  If nothing is found in the first three rounds but the Sheep's Clothing, trinkets, and weapons, Horse will be assigned a role that forces him to act. Furthermore, if Sheep does not trust the group, she will go on her own, and come up with a plan. Without telling anyone else, she will enact her plan, and that will lead to ruin. It's highly unlikely Sheep will be able to win as a traitor. However, she is prone to rash judgments and risky play. Very unpredictable. From the start, this line of action may be too unreliable.
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Dec 28, 2022 23:05
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mycelia posted:Snake is the smarmy, think's-hes-smart, is-only-sometimes-right shithead archetype something i can mention now that we're past his route by the way is there's a recurring gag of Snake's biggest flaw being the fact that for as clever as he is, the thing he sucks at (and doesn't realize he sucks at) is anything involving math- we've already seen him get his math wrong in Dog's route during their gamble (his statistics for the russian roulette are just. not right, at all), and I can confirm we will definitely see it again in the routes yet to come, so that's something fun to keep an eye out for
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Dec 28, 2022 23:07
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Ah, I suspected the Sheep's Clothing had come into play at some point in this route. It seemed inevitable it would be used to accidentally make somebody a traitor sooner or later. I guess the Butcher's Knife will be more relevant in Horse's route, when we come to that.
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Dec 28, 2022 23:15
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Huh, wasn't expecting horse to be the other personality. That was a fun twist. And it also means we still don't know sheep's personality for when she gets put under the gun again.
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Dec 28, 2022 23:18
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Mouse told Sheep not to trust. Sheep acted alone and became Horse. Brian changed the rules. Half the jury wiped out. Nice. At this rate, it seems like everyone will be exposed as a terrible person. We didn't learn too much again, but we got to hear Sheep's tragic backstory. We got Brian's reaction to it, which didn't seem automated. No announcement played for Sheep's Clothing, which implies some items can be activated silently and could explain the odd movements we got from Monkey and Rooster in Snake's route. Personalities Mouse: Clever Bunny: Victorious Dog: Defeated Tiger: Selfless Snake: Ambitious Dragon: Hateful (otherwise, it's Sheep) Monkey: Content Sheep: Desperate (otherwise, it's Pig) Horse: Determined
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Dec 29, 2022 01:10
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I... never took into account that Sheep could've used Sheep's Clothing to become Horse and use Gallop for the last 3 spaces.  Well, it doesn't matter, under the assumption you can only do one thing per round anyway. It's likely we're going on Horse's path next, seeing how the red ??? already spoiled it. May as well get it out of the way after Sheep's bad endings!
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Dec 29, 2022 01:35
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Sketchie posted:
We never saw any weird movement by sheep this route so activating a major trinket must either be a free action, or some of them are.
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Dec 29, 2022 07:45
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Regallion posted:We never saw any weird movement by sheep this route so activating a major trinket must either be a free action, or some of them are. We knew that though from Dog's route, remember? The Taming Whip halted the timer and anyone could use it as long as they had the code and it wasn't currently doing being used.
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Dec 29, 2022 13:34
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NeoRonTheNeuron posted:Mouse told Sheep not to trust. Sheep acted alone and became Horse. Brian changed the rules. Half the jury wiped out. Nice. Actually, there are two very important things to note from this ending: for the first time, Brian actually seems to respond to a contestant, and not just play a clearly recorded voice line that is reacting to a mechanical prompt (contrast Dog's route, where he never reacts to the players trying to speak with him, only to people using the whip from their tablets). If this is correct, it would basically eliminate the Jade Emperor from being any player other than Rooster (though someone could still be his accomplice), and maybe Dog if you were to suggest Sheep didn't succeed in killing him and he just faked it (this branch happens too fast, we don't get confirmation of his death from him not making a move). Also, he seemingly confirms his identity--before this was just an assumption made by all the contestants after talking about how they might be connected, one that could've been deliberately intended to mislead them. It could still be that, of course--the Jade Emperor could be lying, or the father being referred to isn't Brian's--but it seems a lot less likely now.
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Dec 29, 2022 14:51
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 content warning: eye trauma Sheep's route is a really interesting one because it's one of the earliest written routes in the game, to the point that it's connected to an earlier iteration of the Zodiac Trial that didn't make it into the final VN. I mentioned in the OP that this VN originates as a story that the creator Themis wrote, but one big part of that I haven't mentioned yet is that the original death game- what the Zodiac Trial was and how it worked- was completely different in the original story, and Sheep's route was written when that first death game concept was still being used. I won't get into specifics about the original game (partly because I don't think Themis ever gives us a full breakdown of how it worked), but one of the big things was that it took place over a 24 hour period, requiring the whole group to spend the night in the school (which in turn had a 'who's on guard duty and in what shifts' dynamic that changed how some of the routes played out). In that version of Sheep's route, Horse's murder takes place at night, so the fact of 'who was supposed to be watching the group' was a much bigger part of the plot. There was also a plot thread where Bunny ends up murdering someone else during the night as well (the reasons why were not given by Themis, and to my understanding was written out completely, so don't take this as spoiling something we haven't gotten to), and while he's trying to cover that up Sheep has the opportunity to kill Pig, the third guard. (Also, the scene where Mouse is talking with Ox and Bunny in the art room was originally Bunny coming clean about the fact that he killed someone in that original draft of this route.) Themis also talked about how the early iteration of the VN had a lot more pointless or multi-stage choices and as they got closer to the final product they eventually made the management decision to cut out a lot of the unnecessary choice stuff, as all it was accomplishing was making the routes messier than they needed to be. However, because this was an early route, we still have some remnants of that version of the game in Sheep's route. As you're about to see, one of those choices actually does have an impact on whether or not you get the first, early ending, in Sheep's route... [Make a mistake during the investigation of Horse's body.] So, this ending is actually interesting, because it all centers around if we can successfully investigate Horse's murder or not. It's not that hard to do, but there is one big thing that influences how you should investigate, and that's, in fact, if we bring Sheep along with us or not. Whether she's there or not in turn influences where to investigate- and in our case, we successfully investigated by looking at the books while she was there with us. Let's take a look at some of the other successful investigation stuff, first. There was one other right answer if investigating while Sheep is there, and that's near the window blinds... [BGM: Steadfast Gallop]  Now how on earth could the window blinds have anything to do with the body? Just hear me out! Look, see how those windows have these metal ball chains to pull the blinds up and down, right? Yeah, that;'s fairly common, what of it? Now look at this one! It's missing the chain. Huh, that is weird. I'm still not seeing the point. Don't you think something like that could set up the body to look like this? No, but I'm hoping you do. I do. It's like, er, you know, I think it'd be best if I could just draw this out.I walked over to the classroom's whiteboard, picked up a marker, and began to illustrate my point.  Yes, Themis themselves drew this. So this is how the body and the door were initially, see? You're a rubbish artist. Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize we were at an Art Gala. You get what I'm drawing, right? Then it works. I'm sorry, please, continue. Thank you. Now, if you looped the metal chains around Horse's arms and put them over the door frame, you'd have something that looks like this. The killer then exits to the other side of the door and pulls. The body then leans up against the door, all from the outside. Okay, that kind of works, but look, the door isn't completely closed, there's still the metal chain. What do you do about that? It's not perfect, I grant you, but if you pull on one end of each of the chains, you'll pull them through the crack. At that point, the weight of the body would push the door completely closed, and the movement of the door at that point is negligible. I suppose that would accomplish this effect. Not bad. However, I fail to see the point of any of that. I don't know, maybe it was meant to throw us off or something? Seems like quite a bit of work, don't you think? I don't know, this whole situation is confusing. Yeah, I don't really get any of this.There is one other avenue for investigation left, and that's if we don't bring Sheep along, and then take a look...  Behind his back? Why yes, to solve how this was done, simply look between Horse's back and the door. Or rather, try to look between Horse's back and the door. Alright.Ox moved to do just that. Little did he know that this would be a fruitless effort. I believe that you'll find the task rather difficult. After all, our conniving killer used some glue and glued the back of Horse's shirt to the door. Thus, when they closed the door after leaving, so too did the body move, “blocking” the doorway impossibly. Neat idea, not correct. Huh? Really? Yeah, doesn't seem to be any glue here. Are you sure? You don't think there's maybe some sort of glue that goes away after a time or something? I think you should just cut your losses on this one and admit you're as stumped as me. Darn it. I really thought I had it there. Well, don't be too upset over it. The specifics of how the body ended up like that probably don't actually matter much, the point is that someone shot Horse and now he's dead. This is, somehow, still a correct way to navigate the investigation, even though you don't learn anything by doing so. As for how to get the bad ending, well, one way to get it is to check Horse's back while Sheep is with us- we get the same scene as above, but after doing so, Sheep has a suggestion...[BGM: Dog Days]  Wh-what about the closet? What about the closet? What if there was someone hiding in there? Sheep, you're a genius!I walked over to the closet across the room. Just looking at it, you'd think it would be used to house nothing more than textbooks. But this time, it could be housing a murderer. I opened the doors to reveal someone inside! I was right! ...Well, half right. It was true that someone was hidden inside. However, I was under the impression that they'd be alive. This is... AAAGH! N-no...[BGM: That Pesky Rodent]  Before us lay the body of Dog. I thought it was suspicious that we hadn't found him, but I didn't think he'd end up like this. Two. Two people had their lives stolen away in this hellhole. I had a feeling I wouldn't be able to enter a school again after this. Well hey, now we know exactly where Dog was for this whole route! This is horrible. Terrible. But you might be right in your theory. But Dog is dead! Yes, but look at that.Ox gestured to the pistol stuffed in Dog's pocket. So Dog had the pistol that shot Horse. We can't say that for sure, but most likely, yes. But then, who killed him? I think I have an answer to that as well. You do? Check out Dog's cause of death. That's... A golden knife, yes. Stabbed right through the neck. It would kill quickly, sure, but it's not through the throat. Dog would still have a bit of life left in him. And the knife is a rather distinct looking one, wouldn't you say? You don't think? This closet is right across from the door. Judging by the state of the body, I think this is the only answer that makes sense. Um... what are you guys talking about? Horse stabbed Dog, who had been hiding in the closet, with the Butcher's Knife. Horse then put some distance between his victim, since Dog wasn't dying right away. However, Horse didn't know that Dog had gotten his hands on a pistol. With his dying energy, Dog used his pistol to shoot Horse in the chest, killing him. This game is really good about information you learn in other routes re-contextualizing stuff you encounter- for example, we know the deal with this knife (specifically, that it's something Dog had on him before he was abducted, and it wasn't confiscated) because we got Dog's route immediately, but if we hadn't, then this explanation would make perfect sense, since we hadn't seen the knife before! It's a bit of a convenient scene, sure, but the evidence adds up. So I guess Horse was the traitor, then. I guess. And Dog was our hero, huh? I guess he was. B-But he ended up dying right here. How tragic. He paid for our lives with his... We'll make sure he's honored outside. Indeed. For now, we should report back to the group.[BGM: Silence]  The trek back to the cafeteria was grim. How could it not be, having already faced down death? When we got back, we explained the situation to the group.  That's horrible! drat it... we couldn't save everyone. We never were going to be able to. At least with this, things can come to a peaceful end. That's really your big fuckin' takeaway from this? What a freak! Hey, hey, everyone, calm down. I think the news has just put us on edge.  More importantly, this round is almost over. We should all input our moves again, right? Oh shoot, you're completely right! We should get on that, pronto!Bunny was right, we needed to operate our tablets. So we decided to split up and use our tablets in different rooms. I entered a nearby classroom. I took out my tablet. I turned it on. However, before I pressed anything, I hit the floor. Because I had been killed. That's pretty vague, huh? Well, I couldn't be more specific- I died too fast. Maybe my neck was slit, maybe I was shot, maybe I was poisoned. Doesn't really matter now, does it?  [Ending – 9 of Clubs] If Mouse doesn't discover the true nature of Horse's fate, then the larger group will fall under a false sense of security. If the group thinks everything is fine, the killer will be emboldened to speed up the schedule. In this case, discovering a half-truth is worse than both discovering everything and discovering nothing.So yeah, interacting with the closet in any capacity- whether Sheep is there or not- puts you on this end, because you discover Dog's body and this completely changes how Mouse and Ox perceive the crime scene. If you either discover more hard evidence with either the books or the missing chain, or you discover nothing at all with checking behind his body (and don't have Sheep there to misdirect you out of fear that they might notice Horse was shot from behind), you make it through the investigation “successfully”. The next ending we missed is if Mouse picks the wrong person when determining who she think the killer is... [Label the wrong person as the Butcher.] We're going to pick someone we obviously know is not the Butcher here- namely, Dog, as he is currently dead and stuffed in a closet somewhere. At the end of this section, I'll also touch on Mouse's thought process for each of the other wrong choices, just for those curious. [BGM: Silence]  Dog? He's unaccounted for at all the crime scenes. This is especially important in the cases of Pig's death, which shouldn't have been possible for anyone we had an alibi for. He must have choked her out in a separate room, then brought her body back and stabbed it while we were all distracted by the race on the television. We don't know where he is because he's hiding, but he's picking us off one by one. Is that realistic though? What do you mean? Pig's death, he would just have to drag the body in at a time where he hoped no one would be looking in that direction. And if he's the killer, why bother dragging the body into the open like that at all? If he wanted to pick us off 'one by one', it'd probably be better if we didn't find the body. That's... And the fact we haven't seen him at all is also suspicious. Ever since Pig's death, we've been all over the place. Surely someone should have run into him at this point, right? Maybe that's explained if he's been hiding out this whole time, but no, he's apparently prowling around to try and find people to kill? I don't know, I just think the pieces don't fit with this one. Maybe you're right... I'm going to try and gather everyone once again in the cafeteria. It might be a fruitless effort, but I've got to at least try. Care to join me? I think I want to sit down and think about things for a bit. Go on ahead without me. Suit yourself.[BGM: Rat's Awakening]  I sat down to mull over all the evidence. It just wasn't adding up in my head. Over and over again, I kept going back to one piece of evidence that stood out to me. The water on top of the door. What possible use could that have? I couldn't answer that. Then I heard footsteps approaching. I tensed up. But then I relaxed. It wasn't anyone to be scared of. Oh, it's you. You know, you shouldn't be wandering around the school alone at this point. It's become really dangerous.It was as I said this when I saw the knife be pulled out. Oh. It suddenly clicked with me. I realized what had happened. I realized how dumb I had been. I could've tried to run away, to resist, but I was so frozen by the stunning realization of the butcher's true identity that I just let my throat be slashed across, blood flying everywhere. Blood flying onto the killer's face. Blood onto the floor. Blood was all I could see. Then, I couldn't. [BGM: Silence]  [Ending – 9 of Diamonds] After the one who inherited the Butcher's Knife kills enough secretly, Mouse will be compelled to solve the murders. However, if she's not able to identify who the culprit is in time, the butcher is likely to make her a target sooner rather than later. This level of reasoning may be beyond Mouse's capabilities, but let's try to see what lies beyond here, shall we?Like I said at the top, Mouse has a reasoning for every wrong choice, so I'll just run through the list quickly before we get to the final ending for this route that we haven't seen. -Tiger  Tiger? You know she already confessed to have the Selfless personality type, right? Why would she kill people? Confessing like that was just a devious trick to throw us off! ...Really? I've got evidence! When everyone left to input their actions, Tiger claimed to have gone to the nearby restroom. She might've done that after stabbing Pig to death. She hid Pig's body in the kitchen where people couldn't find her, and quickly wiped away the blood. She washed herself off in the restroom. Then, when everyone went looking for her, she dragged Pig's body back over behind that column. It all fits! Mouse, none of that fits. Why not? The simple fact of the matter is, if Tiger wanted to kill us all, she could just grab that assault rifle she's guarding and start firing. No one would be able to stand up to her! Well.. Plus, Horse was shot with a separate pistol than any of the ones in the weapon pile, right? When would Tiger have had time to find a different pistol when she's been guarding the weapon pile? It's not like she could abandon that duty and risk someone spotting her. Maybe you're right...-Snake  Snake? Think about it. He's been acting creepily and suspicious this whole time. He's exactly the profile of an intellectual who oddly knows quite a bit about guns and is polite but bloodthirsty. If anyone was to be a secret killer, it'd be him. ...He also doesn't have an alibi for when Dragon was attacked. He also claimed he didn't see Pig's body behind that pillar, but that whole mystery would be solved if he was lying about it. He input his move in a bathroom, so he could have washed off any blood after stabbing Pig there. But think about Horse's death, when could he have done that? That... He was the first one into the cafeteria, and he didn't leave iut until long after we had found Horse's body. A lot of other people have missing spots in their abili for when they could've killed Horse, but not Snake. That's an impossibility. I guess you're right. I was a little trigger happy with my accusation there.-Rooster  That moron? He's clearly a devilish mastermind. I think this is just because you don't like him. Hold on a minute, hear me out. We don't know where he was during Dragon's murder. Sheep was with us when the gun rang out, I ran into Monkey on the third floor shortly afterwards, and we saw Snake on the first floor not long before that. Rooster's location was completely unknown. And he was the first to recuse himself from the group. Okay, but that's not enough to say for sure that he's the killer. We don't know anything about Dog's alibi, right? And as for Monkey and Snake, they could've just run fast to try and fool you, the fact that you saw them in a different place at a different time doesn't mean anything. That's... Plus, when could he have killed Horse? He was with your group when you went back to the cafeteria, right? And even though he advocated to go searching for Horse, he never left the 'safe zone' until far after we found Horse's body. You're right. Sorry. I guess I didn't think that one through.And, finally... -Monkey  You're accusing her? I hate to do it, but it's the only thing that makes sense. And why exactly is that? She doesn't have an alibi for Horse's death. She doesn't have an alibi for Dragon's death. And really, that's more than you can say about most people. Okay, but that still doesn't explain the situation around Pig. When do you propose she killed her? When could she have washed the blood off herself? That's... Plus, something about her being the culprit just... doesn't sit right with me. I don't know. I'm not usually one to be swayed by gut instincts, but it feels like we're missing something with that explanation. Yeah, you're right. Honestly, what was I thinking, accusing her? Of course she wouldn't do this.And that's that. Finally, the last ending, which (like Snake's third ending) requires you to get something wrong during the deduction breakdown. [Fail to deduce the truth behind the Butcher's killings.] Okay, so, like Snake's, there's multiple deduction points where you have to get the right answer, so we'll quickly run down all of them. Since we know how these things work by now (and because this is a LONG bonus update already), I'll summarize rather than transcribe the breakdown of these deductions going forward.  The correct answer for the first one is pretty obvious, it's when Sheep returned to the cafeteria. The other two answers here result in Mouse very badly trying to get Sheep to say something she shouldn't have known (or to get her to accidentally admit it on her own), and obviously fail immediately.  The second one is, again, a very cut and dry 'did you figure out when Pig was killed' question. The correct answer is, of course, when everyone was off inputting their actions. Pig couldn't have been killed while everyone was in the cafeteria, even if they were distracted by the fourth round results, because it's impossible to kill someone that silently unless there's some way to mask the sound- which there wasn't. Pig also couldn't have been killed while everyone was looking for her, because Tiger was in the cafeteria the whole time and would've literally seen it happen.  The third one is also pretty straightforward. The gun was obviously made to fire on its own, and the string and melted ice are proof that some kind of setup occurred. Dragon did not commit suicide, the knife would still be on the crime scene if that happened, and she wasn't killed remotely, the murder weapon was a knife and it would require a much more elaborate setup to kill someone remotely with one of those, especially with how little time there actually was to pull this murder off.  This last one is the only one that actually requires you to think about things rather than just an examination of the evidence- the real question is 'which of these two deaths has some detail that only makes sense if examined in a specific way', and the answer to that is obviously Horse's death, as he was killed with a gun and nobody heard it happen. While Pig's murder was obviously risky, once you know the specifics everything checks out on its own. If you do manage to get one of these questions wrong, however... [BGM: Silence]  Mouse... you don't really think it's me, right? Th-that's why you're struggling to think clearly. Because in your heart, you recognize I would never do something so h-h-horrible as murder.She slowly started to approach me. I should've been worried, but she was so pitiful, so desperate, so sad that I wasn't thinking straight. Could she really be the culprit? Sure, it made sense to me, but I was just an amateur. Was I wrong? Mouse, please, think things through. I thought we were... well, we could be friends. We can still be friends, right? That's- Just as I started to respond, Sheep lunged forwards at me. She hugged me. She hugged me with one hand, stabbed something through my chest with the other. I couldn't see it, but I could guess. Before I even knew what was happening, the hand that had stabbed me went to her pocket, and Sheep pulled out a gun. Using me as a cover, she shot at Ox and Monkey in quick succession. *bang, bang!* I heard two shouts, two bodies hit the floor. I couldn't tell what had happened, but it couldn't have been pretty. With a weak shove, I lost balance and fell onto the floor. The pain from the stabbing was severe, but peanuts to the pain I felt when Sheep pulled the knife out of my chest. Gotta make sure...She walked over behind my line of sight.  My muddled and pain-racked brain couldn't tell for what purpose at first, but then I heard Ox's howl and the sound of metal entering flesh. I then heard Sheep walking over to the other side of the room.  You b-Whatever Monkey was doing to fight back wasn't enough. The sound alone put the image of a clean, brutal slash in my mind. Then Sheep walked back into my field of vision. Sorry, sorry, sorry... You... DON'T BLAME ME!In an instant, Sheep bent down and slashed at me. But this horizontal swipe wasn't aimed at my throat. This one was aimed at my eyes. I died blind, but able to see things how they truly were for the first time.  [Ending – 9 of Hearts] If Mouse confronts Sheep with her sins, Sheep will try and appeal to Mouse, to say it couldn't be her. Mouse will need to be ironclad in her will, backed up with solid reasoning, for if she falters for but a moment, Sheep will use that hesitation as an opportunity to strike. That is the mark of the Butcher.Next update, we start on a different path towards a different route! Mix. fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Jan 2, 2023 |
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Dec 30, 2022 19:40
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Mix. posted:(and don't have Sheep there to misdirect you out of fear that they might notice Ox was shot from behind) I think you meant to say Horse here.
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Jan 2, 2023 16:32
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whitehelm posted:I think you meant to say Horse here. Oops! I sure did. Fixed!
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Jan 2, 2023 16:41
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Mix. posted:Oops! I sure did. Fixed! Are Ox and Horse the same person? 
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Jan 2, 2023 19:04
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| # ? Jun 8, 2024 19:41 |
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 It's time to get started on another route! Once again, the vote resulted in a tie, so we're going to be doing the two routes that tied back to back like before. This next one's actually going to be very straightforward to start, as it's a path we've already seen! In Round Two, Mouse will go explore with Snake and Rooster in the darkroom and find a Minor Trinket, and then the group all votes to RUN once again. After this, Mouse goes with Bunny and Dog to the truth and false room, where they find a Major Trinket. After this, once again, the group all votes to RUN once again, and reconvene in the cafeteria, where we get Brian's end of Round Three message once again:VICTORIOUS can only win if they finish first with no more than two other people, and DEFEATED wants to finish last, which will result in only the two of them surviving. The group is in disarray for a time, and nobody comes forward about being one of the two personalities in question. Eventually, the group starts splitting into teams of three, as it is considered the safest plan of action, statistically. Here, Mouse decides once more she wishes to go with Bunny and Dog, but when asked if there's any concerns about how everything's shaken out, Mouse isn't so ready to leave this time... [BGM: Dog Days]  To speed things up since time is now of the essence, I say we should only reconvene at the cafeteria once every two rounds. Sound good? Sure thing, no one gave a poo poo about that in the first place. I don't- Ox, drop it. It's not worth arguing. Fine. So is this fine with everybody? This situation works, right? Uh, actually, I have another suggestion. What is it, Mouse? I'm worried about the possibility that someone might have both traitors in their group. Oh come on, what are the chances of that? Or, or, what if the traitor is someone like Horse or Tiger? No one in those groups can stand against them. She's not wrong. Nope. For that reason, I think we should, as a collective, pledge to all look in the same general area. Obviously not in the same specific places, that defeats the purpose of spreading out, but the same area of the floor. That way, if something goes wrong, we can call out to each other. I like that idea a lot! Me too. There is strength in numbers. The suggestion makes sense. Alright, okay. We'll go with that.  If this is the plan, then what section of the school should we look through first? May I suggest the right part of the first floor? I don't think we've covered enough ground over there. Sure, let's just do it already. I'm sick of talking about this.Dragon's curt remark cut the conversation off. We were all sick of just talking. We were antsy and nervous and sick. What would make us feel better? Looking for the dang Trinkets. So everyone started searching throughout the same general portion of the first floor. [BGM: Lucky Foot]  Dog was a very light conversationalist, and Bunny took his cues, so our group was a very quiet search party. But that didn't mean we weren't a determined search party. We went through rooms with a great amount of precision and speed. It was only natural that before long, Bunny found something unusual.  In some room with a big projector, there was a safe hidden under some stairs. Unfortunately, to open it, there was a crossword puzzle that used a bunch of movie trivia. How the hell are we supposed to answer some of these when we haven't watched some of these movies? It's really weird. In the past, these things didn't seem to need specific knowledge. I don't know why this one's different. If we're really stuck, why don't we start asking other people for help? Didn't that one kid do camera stuff? You mean acting? Yeah, yeah, whatever.  My point is that we should pool our brain resources, you feel me? Good thinking.Taking Dog's advice, we talked to other people, and before we knew it we were able to solve the puzzle. By the time Bunny was able to open the safe, we had amassed something of a crowd. Unfortunately, when we looked in the safe, there wasn't a Minor Trinket, but a statue. Bunny took it out. What's this? There's numbers on it. 829- Shut up! What? You moron! We don't know what it does! You missed a piece of paper inside the safe again. Whoops. Same dents, same mistakes, you know what I mean? Just read the paper, Dog. I'm getting to it. Relax. Ahem.[BGM: Silence]  This is a Prayer Statue to the ancient Draconic Gods, said to strike down enemies if asked. By activating this item, you are introducing another action that animals can take. There will now be a 'Pray' option to all available. After pressing 'Pray', you can select any other animal's name, or you can select no one. 'Pray' cycles will be every 15 minutes instead of 45, and everyone must select a prayer option each cycle or face punishment. Which means there will be 3 'Pray' cycles every 45 minute round. At the end of a 'Pray' cycle, the participant whose name was entered by the most people will receive holy judgment, and will be executed. Executed?! The votes will be anonymous, but it will be revealed how many people voted for the participant. If everyone selects 'no one' or if multiple people receive an equal amount of votes, no one will be executed. When you activate this item, the effects will start at the beginning of the next round and will be explained to the group. That's crazy! Who would ever want to activate that item? There's absolutely no benefit to something like that. You mean to tell me my sick 'A 2nd Chance' information was for nothing?  I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss this item. If there were a traitor which we could not easily conventionally defeat, say, Horse or Tiger, we could activate this item and use it to take them down safely. It's a leveling item to ensure that if there's one person completely physically superior to the group, they can't simply steamroll the rest. What it is is bait. We lock the statue up, and never open it. Agreed. It seems entirely too risky to activate the item under any circumstances.So we decided to seal off that item. We kept on searching. Snake's group found another Minor Trinket, bringing the count to 6. But eventually, time ran low, so we had to go into individual rooms and input our actions. I chose to run, obviously. When that was done, we decided to start looking around the left side of the first floor. However, when the fourth round switched over, a voice started to play on our tablets. [BGM: Rabid Rabbit]  Attention, animals. A Major Trinket has been used, and there is now a new option available.What?! PRAYing.Our faces twisted to horror as we realized that those horrible rules we had heard about had indeed been put into play. I could already tell that this meant nothing good. Someone used the Major Trinket. An immediate emergency meeting was called. ...   What the hell was that! I thought we agreed to throw that horrible mechanic away! Okay, fess up, who did it? Don't worry, I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. You really think that's going to get them to confess? It's what my Dad said when I messed up. All of you, shut up!Ox snapped. His face was flushed with frustration. An understandable reaction to the horrible situation we had been thrust into. [BGM: Silence]  It's obvious that whoever activated this Trinket had ill intent. We should assume that it was either the victorious personality or the defeated personality. In either case, the more people dead, the easier it will be for them to fulfill their objective. But how were they able to use the Trinket? It should've been locked away. None of it matters since that idiot Bunny blathered off the first three numbers without thinking! At that point, they could've guessed and checked for the last one. That's... Hey, isn't it suspicious that he gave the code away like that? Maybe he did that on purpose to try and make it seem like anyone could've used the item. That way, we wouldn't be able to pin the activation on him! Hold on a minute, Pig. I know that you have a right to be angry, but you're putting out some really hurtful accusations right now! Take a moment to reconsider, would you? Not to impose, but is Pig's theory really possible? Bunny had yet to read the rule explanation, and thus had no idea what announcing those numbers would really accomplish. This doesn't necessarily clear him of suspicion, but I believe it a stretch to claim malintent for an oversight. Thank you, Monkey. No gratitude is necessary. I am just hoping to keep the conversation measured. Whatever, it's still his dumb rear end's fault for running his mouth like that.  Quit it with the pointless squabbling. We have a much larger concern to deal with. What are we supposed to do now that this stupid system is in play? We can't descend into paranoia just because of this threat. We need to all promise to choose 'no one' when we vote. You seriously think people are gonna do that?! If everyone does that, one rogue vote could kill you! I believe Pig has brought up the real reason why this will never work. Even if we assume that whoever activated the Major Trinket will refrain from voting, a questionable assumption, there is a real risk that non-traitors will vote others in fear of being voted for themselves. It's a true dilemma.[BGM: Ox's Logic]  It's clear that simply promising to not vote isn't going to cut it. Therefore, we are forced to turn to the other way nobody dies- the case of a tie. If we focus all our votes in equal proportion on two people, then the votes will tie, and we can all stay alive. Wait, Ox, you're saying that you want us to vote for each other? Yes. I believe that is the only way. I think it's a wise idea, in theory. But Ox, I fear that few will want to volunteer for the position of 'voted'. It's an undesirable position no matter how you view it. Fine. Then I'll step up to the plate. Ox? Mouse, Bunny, Dragon, Sheep, Monkey, Pig, I want you all to vote for me. Are you serious? Heh. So this is what conviction looks like, eh? What, you think Ox's being 'brave' or something? That's nothing!  Ox, Tiger, Snake, Horse, Rooster, Dog, you all can vote for me. Seriously? The votes'll be split 6 to 6, right? Neither of us will die. Hopefully. Definitely! I know myself, and I know that I'm not the type to die in a shithole like this! I don't like this plan... But if everyone agrees with it, I'll go along with it. No objection here. Nor here! I admire your bravery Ox, Dragon. I'll volunteer to be one of the voted next round! No, it'll take too long to discuss this every single time. We need to resume our Trinket search, so if we can come up with a system, we should stick to it. If we're decided, should we go and enter our votes now? These 15 minute cycles are going to be a lot faster than full round cycles. Yes, I think that would be for the best. Come, everybody, find a room and input your votes. Everyone remembers who to vote for, right? I swear to god, if one of you fuckers forgets who you're on and screw this up, you're dead meat![BGM: Silence]  We split up and entered individual rooms. I voted for Ox. I didn't have a choice- if I didn't, Dragon might die. But... I had a bad feeling about this. I really didn't like voting for Ox like that.
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Jan 3, 2023 01:57
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