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I don't think Lock would lose the 2nd time around. More experience with the game should give him a much easier time. Plus, if he already knows how the hands are dealt, it shouldn't be too hard to force a star alignment as the Dreamer. I didn't expect Odin to give Lock so many chances, and Odin saw through him easily. Lock continues to be scum by not completing the bet, ruining Ossa's side gig, and wasting Laverna's time.
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Oct 7, 2023 00:58
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I feel like the game wants me to root for locke, and yet I can't help but feel disappointed he wormed his way out of it.
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Oct 7, 2023 01:07
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He'd still lose.
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Oct 7, 2023 01:56
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TheDavies posted:He'd still lose.
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Oct 7, 2023 02:50
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He'd still lose. I don't think Locke has been all that impressive of a gambler so far. He's pulled off one trick on Bach, but there's not really been a signal that he'd do well against someone who actually knows what they're doing like Odin after just 1 games worth of experience.
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Oct 7, 2023 03:08
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I don’t think he’d win this time, either. Lock’s been impressively good at fleecing bottom feeders largely through cheating and just outright nonsense. If he can’t control the engagement, I don’t think he’ll win— if he got to go back, he’d probably be better served to pull out for the night and not get Odin’d at all.
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Oct 7, 2023 06:19
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You know what, if we're adding time travel to the mix, we already have the answer: He'd win. What's this based on? Odin said he already has.
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Oct 7, 2023 08:54
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TheDavies posted:He'd still lose.
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Oct 7, 2023 11:30
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 Lock would still lose. A cynic, huh? Well, it's a cynical world... your bet, then?Most of the thread agreed he would probably still lose even if given another chance to face Odin, so we're only betting roughly 28% of our chips, which rounds down to a bet of 15 chips.  Okay then. You know, we as a society love to idealize intelligence. We all have this idea that there are these natural-born geniuses that can make their way out of any situation, so long as it's reasonably possible. And sure, talented individuals who can overcome situations that most would falter at certainly do exist. You're speaking with one, after all. But the way we conceptualize it is all wrong. The use case of these so called 'geniuses' comes in the ability to make informed decisions in split-second scenarios, and to always be angling to keep them in favorable positions and out of bad ones. They can't hope to face down years of actual practice. In contrast to 'natural genius', the strength and potential of long-form practice is often downplayed in society, except by those who are acutely aware of what such practice can do. No natural genius would even be able to hold a candle to an experienced chess player in a game of chess. A natural genius wouldn't find themselves having to play against the chess player in the first place! Similarly, Lock's mistake in this scenario was not any particular blunder; it was underestimating just how much Odin had played 'Star Alignment'. As it happens, Odin has played 'Star Alignment' for many years, against many different players. You'd have to play a couple dozen times before even standing a chance. I highly doubt Lock would be able to beat Odin after five attempts, much less four, much less three. Certainly not two. Looks like you win. This feels a little cheap, a win like this... ah, but I proposed the bet in the first place, didn't I? Only myself to blame! What, you thought we were going to have to wait to find out how we did on that bet? Of course not! It was a hypothetical and nothing more - and it was barely an actual bet, you'd know how to answer more by judging what we know of Ez thus far.  This bet is one where, if playing it yourself, you could easily double most of your chips... or throw a lot of it into a pit, lost forever.In any case, next update, let's see how Vels is doing!
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Oct 7, 2023 20:43
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Sure, Ez, sure. If you assume that it's a fresh game with different cards dealt, then that's fine.
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Oct 7, 2023 21:43
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I have a sudden suspicion that if we had voted the other way, we'd have gotten a different answer confirming that yes, Lock would indeed have won ... and I have a sudden suspicion that having all these chips is bad for us.
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Oct 7, 2023 22:06
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 [BGM: Dummy]   How much longer do we have to stay here? … I'm just saying that there's only but so long I can look at the same clothes. I gave it an honest try – don't say that I didn't – but I kinda feel like I wanna stick with my own fashion. I mean, I picked it for a reason, you know? I like what I wear. Even if I was to pick something different out to wear, it sure as poo poo wouldn't be from a common brand store like this. All the poo poo here is totally white bread! Anyways, my point is, I've looked over everything they have here, like, ten or twenty times at this point. It's old. It's boring. I'm bored. … Need I really point out that we're not doing this for fun? That's– We are doing this because there is a gang of very violent, very resourceful criminals looking to find and murder you. We... are laying low... right now. Okay, okay, fair maybe. But like, if our plan is to just lay low in a random store, couldn't we, like... also lay low in other places? Like a movie theater! No one's gonna search in an active movie, not if they don't want to be booed! Ah yes, booing, the ever-effective gang repellent. I'm just saying it's dark, it's crowded, it's a good place to hide! And it'd be way more interesting. We'd have to buy tickets; that leaves a trace. And, given the current state of things, I think we should consider keeping our money as a priority. Fiiiiine. Movie theater is off the table. But, like, there's gotta be other places that are more interesting than this! And to get to them, that would require us leaving the store we're in right now – which means we could be seen, which then means we could get caught. We're not going to risk our safety going out in the open just because you have the attention span of a child. Hey, you don't have to be a dick about this! You're talking about not arousing suspicion, but I'd say just standing around in the back of a store not buying anything is going to raise eyebrows. From who? The minimum wage employees? Or maybe that old manager who looks like he's barely clinging on to life? I'd be surprised if he could even see us from this distance. Don't say poo poo like that! Respect your elders! …I didn't have it in me to argue this point. We're staying here. Ugh. Fine.[BGM: Bidding]  Krish sat down with a surprising amount of sass. ...By that, I mean I previously didn't think you could sit down with sass; guess I stood corrected on that point. For my part, I just held back a sigh. I couldn't exactly blame Krish for acting out like this – better this than straight out panic, which would be a reasonable enough reaction to everything going on. After Yi's goons had scattered, I'd left my hiding spot, grabbed my phone from the ground, and contacted Krish. They needed to know what was going on ASAP. The two of us had met up close by, and in-person I described everything I saw. They had a hard time accepting it all... particularly the bit about Yi ordering their death. But... they also didn't doubt that I was telling the truth. If they were on their own, they probably would've just moped around, stunned for a bit – they might've even decided to confront Yi about this face on, though I'd like to think even they weren't that dumb. It was clear I had to step up. First things first, we'd needed to get out of sight; I didn't know how quickly the Duats were going to act on that whole 'kill order' thing, but I had to assume the worst. The Duats had a lot of members, and exponentially more agents that were willing to give them information. As Krish had just demonstrated, they were a reasonably known entity in Panthea; they certainly stood out. It wouldn't take long to locate them. We'd decided to rush over and hide in a random clothing store – seemed like a good enough place to lie low. It was unlikely the Duats would think to look here, and it didn't seem like the type of place their information network would be regularly hanging out at. However, this was far from a permanent solution; I knew that, and Krish knew that, but neither of us wanted to state it aloud. But... it had to be discussed. This wasn't just some nightmare we'd wake out of, we had to make active moves to prevent this.  We need to think long term. Long term? Or at least day-long term. Where are we going to spend the night? Sleeping on the streets seems ill-advised. Yeah, the Duats can definitely find us there. Alright, well, my Pop's place is absolutely out. Not only would they be expecting that, I have no intention of getting him remotely involved in any of this. Going there would expose him to danger. I agree, that's a bad idea. What about your place? Krish, the Duats will be looking in the places they think they can find us. We need a better solution. Alright, well, how about a hotel? There's a bunch of places for visitors to stay around Panthea. We can just reserve a room for the night; I've got cash! Again, Krish, they're thinking about where we're going to go. After the usual suspects come up empty, I'd bet officers will be interviewing just about every hotel owner in the city. It might work, but it's too high a risk. Okay... then, maybe we break in somewhere? There's gotta be some abandoned apartments or houses or... something. We just take over one of those! Do I even need to explain why that won't work? Well, I don't see you suggesting any bright ideas! I'm the one doing all the work right now! If all my ideas suck, then why don't you speak up?! ...I think you should flee the city. What?! Krish, I know you love Panthea... but it's not safe for you. So you're saying we just completely bail? How do you think this is going to play out? You've got dozens of people out there right now, looking to murder you. You're a target, Krish! There's a hit out for you. You think that's just going to go away? You think life can return to normal after this?! God drat it, this is do or die. ...And you can't die, so you have to do. I... I know, I just... just... gently caress, man. gently caress. Krish could barely face me. ...Yeah, it was starting to sink in. Krish was scared, and I couldn't blame them. It was a hosed up situation. ...I'm sorry. What? I'm sorry. I'm responsible for getting you sucked into all of this. You were right: you warned me about this activism, you told me not to trust Yi, but... I just wouldn't listen. Just had to stick my head where it didn't belong. And, once again, dumb Krish just ruins everything. But this time, you're involved. And now... now things are hosed in a way that can't be walked back.Krish was on the verge of tears. … With a taxi, it won't cost much to get to the city borders. Due to the tensions with rival gangs, I'm pretty sure the Duat's influence is pretty squarely stuck in Panthea. Like you said, there are always hotels. We'll just find a place out there. And, after that... we can work things out. … It's going to be alright, Krish. We just need to be smart. Stick with me, and we can survive. ...Say, Vels... Yes? You watched the whole thing with Yi, right? Right. And you called the cops early on. Yeah, I told you all this. So, you were waiting to jump down to try and save us, right? Waiting for the right time to fight back? It's why I jumped down when your life was in danger. Okay, right... But then, doesn't that mean you could've jumped down when my journal was about to be tossed into the fire? …What was Krish getting at? ...I could've. I also could've jumped down when you were getting the poo poo kicked out of you by Yi as a punishment. Right, right... it's just... you knew how much that journal meant to me, Vels. How much I cared about it. And it loving sucked when Yi tossed it into the fire. He's an rear end in a top hat for that. But because your life wasn't at stake, it wasn't worth exposing my position. Wasn't worth it? Krish, every second I could delay my attack was a second gained for us. I didn't know how long it would take for the police to get here... and my decision was correct, if you remember. I could only hold Yi's goons off but for so long. When the police arrived, Yi had just regained control of the situation. Had I jumped in earlier, that scene would've continued to play out. Is that what you wanted to have happen? No, no, of course not. You're absolutely right, Vels. You did the rational thing. You were correct. …I sensed there was something lying beneath those words. I also sensed I probably didn't like whatever was beneath them. I was already in a confrontational mood, so I had half a mind to push the issue again... however, it was at this opportune – or, perhaps, inopportune – moment that something else caught my eye. Someone had entered the shop. And, judging by who they were walking directly towards at this very moment... I had to guess it wasn't for clothes. Krish also noticed the approaching presence, and assumed what looked to be an attempt at a fighting stance. But the person before us probably wasn't some Duat agent. Our would-be “assailant” was a younger woman wearing a punk-rock outfit, who had her hair dyed bright pink. As she laid her eyes on us, she was very unamused. [BGM: Trick Score]   … Hey, what are you doing here? …She just looked over us, bored. She didn't even bother saying anything. Speak up!Krish's shouting was beginning to draw something of a scene. I thought about taking over negotiations, but... as I started to open my mouth, I closed it again. ...No. Not going to say anything? Alright then, I get it. Put 'em up!Krish went from a casual 'on guard' position to a straight up combative one. Krish... I'll have you know I'm a world class fighter, and my friend here ain't a slouch, either. Plus, it's versus one. … You really gonna start a fight in the middle of the store like this? That's your play?Good question, Chara. Given the gathered employees looking on at us, that probably wasn't the best of ideas. Tch.Unhappy, Krish relaxed some. An awkward passed between the three of us. Well? If the two of you are done being proper idiots, shall we get going?She said this like it was the obvious next step. The hell do you mean? There's not a chance in hell we're going anywhere with you! … ...Alright then, fine with me. If you want to stay here and get murdered by the Duats, that's no skin off my back. Just thought I'd give you the option.And, after saying all of that so matter-of-factly, she turned around and began walking away without so much as a glance back. Unorthodox, to be sure. An awkward glance passed between Krish and myself; we both seemed to be weighing our options, trying to understand the situation. But, ultimately... there wasn't much of a choice. Given how dire things were, Krish was willing to take any thread of hope tossed their way, no matter how tenuous. Hey, wait!Krish called out, and Chara gracefully stopped in her tracks. ...Uh, well. We'll go with you.For a moment, Chara just looked at us, saying nothing. Then she resumed walking out of the store.  Brilliant.[BGM: Silence]  Awkwardly, the two of us followed her out. I was certain Krish didn't have the faintest idea what was happening. Their mind was probably racing right now. ...I say that with an air of superiority, but being honest, this situation was pretty much a total mystery to me as well. Guess the only option was to see how things played out. Parked right outside the store was a flashy looking red sports car. Woah... When I was skint, I always envied people with nice cars like this. Now that I've got some cash to my name, I figured – why not grab one for myself?Without any more explanation, Chara circled the car and got into the driver's seat. Meanwhile, Krish and I awkwardly made our way into the backseat. We buckled up, and Chara pulled out into the street. [BGM: Opening Lead]  ...This was really bizarre. There was no good reason why she wasn't explaining poo poo to us. I just had to hope this was just some quirk of her personality. We drove in silence. Chara just zoomed through the Panthea streets. In an odd stroke of luck, we weren't running into any red lights. The whole experience felt off, but... not even in a bad way. It just sort of felt unreal, like we were in a trance or a dream or something. Good change of pace from the very real situation we were in just moments before. Krish fidgeted around in their seat. They were very clearly uneasy with this setup. It looked as though the whole 'trance' thing was more of a me thing. Oh well. For my part, I just passively looked out at the Panthean streets. For as long as I'd lived here, I so rarely actually just... looked around. There were a couple of shops... some very elaborate graffiti... Oh, there's Olympo's main office building – a little extravagant, but you couldn't deny its charm. There were some more buildings... You know, I always questioned why Krish seemed so infatuated with this place, but, for this one drive, I could kind of see their point. There was actually something beautiful about this place, beneath all the crime and conspiracy and whatnot. I could actually imagine some less-informed citizens, blissfully unaware of the other side of Panthea, who legitimately thought this city was idyllic. ...I could only envy them. ...So. This is a bit awkward, huh? Krish, in place of admiring the scenery, had been growing increasingly uncomfortable with this silence. To try and break it, they spoke up. How so? I mean, us. Just sitting in silence. You don't find that awkward? Not particularly. I don't mind a bit of banter when with friends, but seeing as I don't know either of you two, forcing us to chat just seems like a bit of a pain, you feel me?Well, if we were talking, might as well broach the topic I wanted to bring up. ...You're right. Excuse me? You're going to have to speak up, mate. Can barely hear you. You're right. You don't know either of us. So... that raises some questions. We're finally getting round to this, huh? How did you find us? When you entered the store, you clearly knew that we were here... but I thought we covered our traces pretty well. Clearly not well enough. Yeah, 'bout that. See, one of my friends was at you guys' little dumbass gathering. After that went to poo poo, she was kind enough to call me up with all the deets. Once I finished laughing my rear end off, I figured this was as good an opportunity as I was gonna get. Obviously you two were toast, angering the Duats like that. You're not answering my question. How did you find us? Chara kept one hand on the wheel, and with the other, she thumbed back at Krish. Your friend has his phone on him. Wait, seriously?I looked over to Krish in anger. You didn't think to tell me this? You didn't ask! Why does it matter? Yeah, you might want to toss that out pretty soon. If I can use it to track you nitwits, the Duats will be on that soon enough. Yeah, Krish, throw it out of the car right now. What?! This thing's loving expensive!! Not the point! There are memories on this thing. They're on the cloud – throw it away, Krish. Krish looked at me with fear in their eyes. If Krish didn't throw it away... I would. Accepting defeat, they rolled down the window and tossed the phone out. There, happy? That... Well, it definitely wasn't the ideal way to dispose of a phone, but I guess it'll work well enough. Okay, look, could we quit focusing on it? You're some sort of super hacker, and you found me through my phone – got it. Super hacker is overselling it, it was just a bit of light hacking. You still haven't really answered my question though. No? I thought it was pretty clear how I found you. ...Okay, that question, sure. My main point is that you still have a lot to explain. You're right, you're right. I could explain now...Chara began to bring the car to a stop, parking it. Or we could just get there, and things'd make sense then.I knew where we were. We were by the entrance to the Forest.  Things were getting weirder and weirder. Who's up for a little walk? Better not be a long one... Relax, the place we're going to is real close by.After my fight, I wasn't exactly in the mood for a walk, but... we'd come this far. So Krish and I – still with no real context or say – followed Chara deeper into the forest, walking the beaten trail.
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Oct 11, 2023 00:32
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Good thing Chara has swooped in to save the day. If that didn't happen, Vels' route would have ended with them leaving Panthea.
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Oct 11, 2023 05:13
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NeoRonTheNeuron posted:Good thing Chara has swooped in to save the day. If that didn't happen, Vels' route would have ended with them leaving Panthea. I hear Hightower’s nice this time of year 
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Oct 11, 2023 06:44
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NeoRonTheNeuron posted:Good thing Chara has swooped in to save the day. If that didn't happen, Vels' route would have ended with them leaving Panthea. Poor Vels. So close to a happy ending.
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Oct 11, 2023 10:59
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 [BGM: Silence]  Luckily for us, Chara wasn't lying. It wasn't long until we took a turn onto an offshoot of the main path... and once we had walked for a bit down that, I could see a relatively large house sitting in a clearing. Well... compared to the size of some of the other buildings in the Forest, it really wasn't that big, considering. But it was certainly nothing to slouch at.  This where we're heading? Behold, my friends, the estate of the late Veronica Collins. Since she's passed, my boss has been renting it – it's our base of operations. Your boss?Instead of responding, Chara just kept walking towards the house. It was becoming clear this was something of a theme with her. Well, when we were this close, it was better to just walk a couple more feet than press the issue. If I was going to get up in arms about waiting for answers, it probably should've happened before now. Instead of approaching the front of the house, we circled around to the back where the garage was. Chara took a small remote out of her pocket and pressed a button... and just like that, the garage opened. ...Actually, what was a house like this doing with a garage? Was there even a car parked in here? I doubted it. I knew that there were in fact roads that cars could drive on in the Forest, but I hadn't seen any leading to this house. As the garage opened, my suspicions were confirmed. No cars. Hm. Has this house been here so long that there used to be an opening for cars to drive out of, and trees had just grown over that area? Or... was this just an oversight when building the house? Maybe an opening for a car had been planned? ...This was perhaps not the detail to get caught up in, considering that Polly Deisma was standing inside the garage, but I had a tendency to get caught up on the minor details. Anyways, Polly Deisma. That was a thing. [BGM: Stand]  My boss.Krish's demeanor noticeably changed.  Oh, so you actually brought them here. You doubted me? No, no, of course not. I've been taught that lesson one too many times; just surprised that they came so willingly. Yeah, well, if I knew who we were visiting, I wouldn't have come so willingly. Heh, seems to me like you've got something of a grudge against me.Krish, please remember our tenuous situation – tread carefully. Of fuckin' course I do!God drat it. Why'd I be happy to visit a fuckin' Deisma? Your company's killing Panthea!  Yuuup, that's pretty valid. Huh? I mean, if I were you, I'd probably hate me too. But I'm not a bad guy – trust me! Hang out with me for a bit, and you'll see I'm not like my family. That so? Uh, well, I'd like to think that.This wasn't the time for this sort of chat. I still want an explanation. Ooh! Ditto! Huh? An explanation! I like being in the loop a lot. Wait, you don't know what we're doing here?! I mean, I got the general gist of it. ...Sorta. ...Okay, being real with you, I didn't realize it was a conversation I had to pay attention to until, like, halfway through.Krish nodded sagely, as if they understood this practice. But, I'm pretty sure even from the start I was only getting the basic rundown. That's because I only had the basic rundown.Chara turned towards us. Care to tell the story yourselves? Huh. What, so we just spill everything, just like that? Krish.I gave them a determined look. This wasn't the place to fight. I got the vibe that we wanted to be winning points with Polly right now. Just give him a rundown. Krish evaluated this. They clearly didn't like the idea, but they also trusted my judgment more than they trusted their own at this point. Alright. I mean, it's not a very long story. There's this guy – Mr. Yi. I sort of, you know... looked up to him. Trusted him. He's a Duat member, but he told me that he wanted out of the business. I gathered a bunch of people who were fed up with the Duats, and we were going to meet to talk about ways of resisting the gang. But the whole time... it was a trap. Mr. Yi brought his henchman, and they surrounded us and threatened us... and then he beat me up. Then I punched him, Vels here punched a bunch of his guys, and the cops showed up and we scattered. But... Vels stuck around, and overheard that the Duats put out a hit for the two of us – so we had to flee. And now we're on the run, because they're trying to kill us. And... that's it. Wow. That's...Polly seemed at a loss for words.  Wait, so a Duat member told you to gather up a bunch of people who had expressly anti-Duat sentiments? That didn't seem... I don't know, a little dodgy to you? It did.I exchanged a look with Chara; a sort of mutual understanding passed between us, like we got the vibe that we were actually, in a weird way, in pretty similar situations. That really loving sucks, guys. I don't know what to say. You were just trying to do the right thing... And those bastards! God, I loving don't understand why the Duats aren't just in jail. Like, they're criminals, for God's sake! Aren't jails for holding criminals? I don't get it. Yeah, you and the rest of us. Man. gently caress. Just hearing that has got me fired up. Alright, it's decided. You two are being hunted by the Duats? Right. Okay then, you can stay here.Wh-what? What?! Are y-you serious? Why do you think I brought you all the way here? I don't know, I thought we were gonna get killed or something! ...And you entered the car? You were intimidating! And Vels did it, so I thought there was a plan or something... Hold on a minute. I've got a number of questions. Please, ask what you want....This was too good.  First of all, is this actually safe? The Duats are really good at finding people. They'll be searching all over the place. The last thing I want is for us to feel safe staying at this random house in the middle of the Forest, just to get killed in the middle of the night by a set of particularly intelligent Duat members. That wouldn't be good for any of us. Yeah, poo poo, that'd be bad, huh? But I mean, they'd need to know you were here, right? I don't think that should be possible. I mean, you guys were smart enough to ditch anything that could be tracked ASAP, right?I shot Krish a dirty look. They conveniently let their gaze wander to the ceiling. And it's not like there's any connection between me and the two of you. The only people who know about you two being here are the four of us currently standing in this room. You guys obviously aren't gonna tell, I'm not gonna tell, and we can absolutely trust Chara to keep a secret. So, uh, yeah, this should be good! Woah, you're right! We don't have to leave Panthea after all! Of course, there needs to be some ground rules. Let me be clear: if the Duats find out that Polly is sheltering you two, that's going to gently caress us all. We can't get cocky about this. That means that until further notice, you aren't allowed to leave the house without getting approval. We wouldn't want you to be spotted by the odd informant. Fine by me. I mean, not 'fine'... but, like, I can swing it. Also, this should go without saying, but no phones. You'll just have to use the tech already available in the house... which shouldn't be a problem, since there's a frankly offensive amount of it here. Hey, hey, what did I say? This is why you get spares! When guests come over – suddenly, you're the host with the most. That's...Chara rubbed her temples. The universe literally put a hit out on two kids just so a situation could crop up that vindicates your argument. You really are the loving main character of life or whatever. Oh, don't say that. ...I don't buy it.This statement came to the surprise of everybody else in the room. I thought it was pretty reasonable. What do you mean? You just happened to give us refuge from the dangerous gang hoping to have us killed on, what, a whim? I don't buy it. Hey, I have the space! Why not put it to a good cause, and get a little karma on the side, huh? Okay, but Chara mentioned earlier that we were brought here for a specific reason. And that reason could be to save you! Chara's a very generous person, I'll have you know. Fine. So you're saying that you're going to let us stay here, basically as refugees, with no catch? Yes. … Weeeeeeeeell.... God drat it.[BGM: Last Dice]  Hey, look, look, I'm not asking you to do anything. And, actually, I'm not joking about that. If everything goes fine – everything goes the way I hope – then literally you have absolutely no obligations living here. But...? I heard from my friend that you two were pretty good at fighting? ...There is a significant amount of fighting skill between the two of us. Hell yeah!I suspected Krish hadn't noticed my choice of wording. Then, that's the only qualification. I would feel more safe knowing that a pair of capable hands were sleeping in the same house as Polly. Huh? I'm confused. Let me try and explain. So... as you know, my father is Odin Deisma. My brother, Art, currently is the CEO of Olympo. And, you know, he's really not that bad of a guy! Needs to loosen up more, sure, could really stand to go out and party now and then, see the world. But he's really smart – always has been. And he's a lot more thoughtful and caring than he lets on. Like... he'd never admit it, but he actually looks out for you if you're close to him. People give him a lot of poo poo, but he never lets it get to him. But. ...But the way he's running Olympo can't be tolerated. It's unforgivable. My father is a complete amoral bastard. From birth, we were taught we were only of value if we got results, and that the only way to get results was to play dirty. Art always took Odin's lessons to heart. Maybe being the oldest sibling, he thought he had something to prove. That's why he ended up inheriting the company. Well... given his general competence, maybe he would've anyways... Whether it's Odin's influence or not, the point is he can't be allowed to continue to run Olympo like he has been... which is why Polly is going to be challenging him for control of the company. I really don't like to lock horns with him like this, but it honestly has to be done. And you want us here to make sure nothing happens to Polly. Right. Wait, wait, hold on – am I getting this right? Are you saying that you think your own brother might try to do something to you? No! He wouldn't... He would. And I want you to make sure it doesn't succeed. If that's the case, why not straight up hire bodyguards? They'd do the job better than us, and you clearly have the resources for it. ...All the traditional avenues of hiring bodyguards would probably be detected by Art - and bodyguards that are paid to protect can also be paid to defect. But, from the little I know, I doubt you two would turn. And, if Art doesn't know about your presence, chances are anybody that he'd send wouldn't, either. You can't downplay the element of surprise. Understood. I think that all makes sense to me.At first, I was skeptical of this proposal, but the story they gave checked out. All parties benefited. Honestly, for Krish, this was probably the best way out; it was a gift practically handed to them. However... they didn't look particularly happy. In fact, they were back to bordering on pissed.  So basically, you're just using us as pawns in your war with your brother over power, is that pretty much it? Typical. Makes a lot more sense than you doing this out of some sense of altruism. Tell me this, why should we be backing you in this war in the first place? Sure, maybe your brother has been doing some messed up stuff – but what assurance do I have that you won't be just as bad? At least Art is a good business owner, but all I've heard about you is that you like to act like a drunk rear end in a top hat.loving hell, Krish – time and place, time and place.  Oi! The hell gives you the right to act like that? You were dead meat – Polly is here offering you a chance to save yourself on a silver platter, and you talk to him like that? Why don't I just throw you out, and you can– Relax, Chara.Polly still had a smile, but there was a bit of sadness to it. He's got every right to react like this. I go by they/them. Ah, sorry. They've got every right. Look at it from their perspective. Why would they trust me? You heard them – I'm a drunken rear end in a top hat. Look, you don't have to support me. Honestly, I wouldn't blame you if you didn't. At this point, you can stay here if you want regardless; knowing what I know, I can't exactly kick you out and expect to sleep well tonight. I just thought you ought to know the dangers that option would have. You don't have any obligation to actually try and protect me or something.I glanced over to Krish. Their expression was conflicted. ...They might need a bit of a push. ...If you don't mind, Polly, would you mind explaining why you think the company would be in better hands with you in charge? Why I deserve it, huh? That's the wrong question. I just want it out of my brother's hands – I don't deserve anything at all. ...I've had a pretty easy life. I mean, my dad's an rear end in a top hat, but whose isn't? Sure, I had to deal with some abuse on that front, but it was a small tradeoff for living a lavish lifestyle. I was never good in school; couldn't apply myself right. I was never good enough for Odin; never got his stupid games. I was... a pretty worthless kid. There was a bit where I really wanted to keep up with Art, but... after the umpteenth lecture from Odin, I finally realized I really wasn't on the same level as him. I couldn't keep up with him, no matter how hard I tried. So... why try? I used my wealth to play around. Skipped school, got into trouble, met girls, did what I wanted... and would've probably flunked, were it not for my father's influence. Eventually became an adult, and I got a job at my father's company. ...And I hated it. You know, I almost considered quitting. I was given a super high paying, low effort job without any of the qualifications I needed for it... and I almost quit it out of spite. But... I was a bit too dependant on my lifestyle. I kept doing what I had always done. Having fun, shirking responsibilities... It's really easy to fall into habits – especially habits developed over years and years. 'Having fun' started taking on a new definition. Getting drunk. ...Getting in scandals. Doing some stuff that... yeah, some stuff that really isn't excusable. I mean, gently caress, you've seen the headlines. DUIs... assault... sexual harrassment... ...I still think that last one actually was bullshit, but I'm not going to get into that. Regardless... it was very, very bad. I was told I was a disgrace to the family, but that just encouraged me – gently caress my family. Odin always talked about being brutal, but he never had the balls to actually cut me off. If you met the me from even a year ago... I'd honestly have said stick with Art. You'd be in better hands. But then, as really more of a joke than anything else, I decided to start working with a bunch of the lowest-level employees. And it was... pretty eye opening. I mean, I had literally never done a hard day's work in my life. I was pretty awful at those entry level jobs, but my coworkers didn't complain. When Odin heard what I was doing, he got upset; Art, he just thought I wouldn't stick with it for more than a day or two. Both responses just motivated me to keep at it longer. And, the more time I spent there, actually trying my best, the more perspective I started to get. Odin always talked about how different jobs were for different sorts of people, as if being an executive was more 'noble' or some poo poo, but that was total bullshit! The more I worked there, the more unfair poo poo I noticed. poo poo that I was surprised people actually had to deal with on a day-to-day basis. And the more I talked with those workers... the more I realized how absolutely entitled I'd lived, all my life. How I'd been throwing away opportunities by acting like an rear end. How my whole way of thinking – how I'd been thinking for years – it was all bullshit. Since then, I've been trying to change how I live, trying to be a better person. I can't say I've gotten there yet, but at the very least, I can say that if I was in control of Olympo, I'd listen to my employees – unlike Art. I'd focus less on making our company bigger and more on making it better. When I met with Chara, she convinced me that the best way to use my privileged lot in life is to take power and do good with it. So... that's what I'm doing. ...Oh, and I've quit the whole 'drunk entitled rear end in a top hat' thing as well. Is that so? Okay, the gala was a one time thing, and I had a good reason. And that night in the casino? Work in progress! Like I said, I'm a work in progress. Let's try and get to a 'finished state' before you take over the company, okay?Chara sighed, then turned back to the two of us. I don't blame you if you weren't terribly convinced by that story. Polly acted like an rear end in a top hat for a lot longer in it than he didn't. But, let me just say this: Polly Deisma is a good person. He has his struggles and issues... lots, and lots, of issues. But fundamentally, he's a nice person. I've worked at the company for long enough to say this. Even back when he was more of an rear end in a top hat, he was never malicious – I noticed him stand up for people when he saw poo poo going down.  He was always quick to do favors for people, or give a compliment, or worry over somebody in trouble. I saw scenes like this all the time... and I also saw him change. He's been taking genuine strides trying to educate himself and do better. It might sound like the bare minimum, but I think someone who has absolutely no need actually dedicating themselves to getting better at doing entry-level work is noble, in a very weird way. More than anything, he's aware of himself now, which is the biggest thing. But even if he's become more aware, he hasn't really changed: he's always been good at heart. ...Incredibly entitled, perhaps. Stupid, impulsive, incompetent, unaware of the actual consequences of his actions or of his real place in life. But good....To be honest, even though she clearly legitimately trusted and liked Polly, that wasn't really a ringing endorsement to me. I had no doubt that Polly was nice... but that doesn't really matter much. A lot of horrible people can be genuinely nice. However, it wasn't me that those words needed to reach, it was Krish. … You know, whenever I heard your name, I always just thought you were some corporate rear end in a top hat. But now? Now that I've heard your story? I feel really dumb for judging you without ever meeting you. I mean, going from entitled prick to an ally of the people? That's, like, super impressive! It reminds me of something Mr. Yi once told me. Uh, something like... for most people, once they're walking down a path, it takes incredible strength of will to change it. ...I think I butchered that quote, but my point is, I think the fact that you were able to look at yourself and realize you weren't happy with who you are is super inspiring. Alright. I'm on board. If you need a bodyguard, then you, my friend, have a bodyguard! Hell yeah!Polly held out a hand, and Krish slapped it hard. Well, they changed their tune fast. Couldn't say I was overly surprised at that outcome.  Here's to a beautiful new alliance, I guess. Well, good to hear that's sorted out. So you two are okay with backing Polly in the bid for Olympo? I've no problem with it. To be honest, I don't give much of a poo poo about personal journeys or emotional growth or whatever, but from what I've heard, most people in charge would be an improvement over the current management. And, more to the point, Krish needs a place to stay. Having a place to hide out is the number one priority. A pretty straightforward mindset. I'm a pretty straightforward person. I can respect that. Awesome, so I guess things are settled. You two are staying here from now on. Hell yeah! Guess we'll be roommates for a while, Vels.[BGM: The Poison]  Hold on a minute...Ah, I let it get too far... but there wasn't a better time to bring it up, though. This... wasn't going to go over well. But... yeah, no, there was no getting over it. I couldn't stay here. I can't stay here. What? Huh? I'm confused. Don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful for this offer – and Krish absolutely should take it. And, like I said, I'm willing to back you in your struggle with your brother for control of the company. If you need me to do something, just ask, and I'll help. I'll still try to spend a lot of time around here as well. But... I can't spend the night here. Seriously? I thought the point was that you guys didn't have a place to go. Krish doesn't have a place to go. I do. How... exactly does that work? Trust me, the Duats don't know the first place to look for me. I overheard them – I'm a nonentity in their eyes. They're completely unaware of my identity. And from the little they do know, it'll be hard to track me down. But what if they see you walking around? They only know to recognize me because of my red hoodie and arm tattoos. If I just put on another coat, one with longer sleeves, I'm confident they wouldn't even realize it was me. Plus... I'm not really the target. I mean, they want to kill us both, but they just called me an 'issue' – Krish is the 'target'. It's safer for me. I guess I just don't get why you don't want to stay here. Do you have a problem with me, or something? It's nothing like that. I just have things to attend to. gently caress that! Krish had been holding their tongue until now, hearing me out. But that only lasted so long. You have a place to stay, and you didn't mention that before?! ...It still wouldn't be safe for you. The hell is up with that? Is this about you never wanting to show me where you live? What on earth are you hiding? … And what is it that you 'have to do' out there? 'Cuz it sure as hell ain't a part-time job or something. No way someone as 'logical' as you would risk your life over that. So, what do you 'have to do'? … Heh. We're supposed to be friends. We're in a life or death situation together. And yet, you're still not telling me poo poo! What on Earth is that about, is it because Chara and Polly are standing right there? Fine, let's leave the garage for a minute. There's no need for that. That's... gently caress.[BGM: Silence]  Are we even friends? I think so. Well, I'm starting to have doubts! You keep too many secrets; I don't know what poo poo you have to hide, but you don't have to hide it from me. You shouldn't have to! …...Sorry, Krish. But it's probably for the best that I kept this to myself. It's not that I didn't trust you – it would just be better for both of us if we leave things like this. [BGM: Ante Up]  Hey, uh, Krish... I'm sure your friend here has good reasons for keeping things from you.Polly was clearly uncomfortable with the atmosphere I had created. I know – why don't I show you around the place? You're gonna love it, this place is top tier. It's got a huge kitchen, it's got a game room, the beds are awesome. And, if anything's not to your liking, just ask me; my credit card is at your disposal. I mean, you're gonna be staying here, it's only fair. So come on, let me give you a little tour around. ...Yeah, okay. That's probably for the best. Awesome! First things first, the library. Wait, you have a library in a house? Well, library may not be the right word for it – it's not like there's a librarian, or a library card or anything. But the room does have a lot of books! Really? What types? See for yourself! I haven't really gotten around to organizing them, so whatever order they're in was how the previous owner left them. The two walked out of the garage, Polly eager to get the tour started. ...I felt bad that this was how I was leaving the conversation with Krish. I'd probably have to deal with that before too long. ...But, later. I'd have time later. I turned to Chara. I wasn't quite done with our chat. So, you plan to have Polly as the CEO of Olympo? That's the plan at any rate. And it's because you think he'd be a more fair boss than Art? Uh, yeah? Why else would I do it? Being the head of Olympo is pretty powerful; dating the head of Olympo would make you pretty powerful yourself. Hey! We're not dating, alright! Get that idea out of your head. Sorry, my bad. Guess I misread the room. If you're insinuating that I'm doing it for personal gain, you couldn't be more wrong. Okay, okay, no need to be so defensive. It would be a reasonable motivation. Well, it's not mine. Fair enough. Any idea how you actually intend to dethrone Art? He doesn't seem the type to just be content with losing his position as CEO. Well, for starters, Polly already has a 20% stake in the company. Another 25% is distributed amongst employees and the like, and I've been trying to consolidate all the spare stock. But, that leaves a 55% share firmly in the hands of Odin and Art. So long as the two stay a united front, this whole 'stock' route seems like a dead end. We don't necessarily need Odin to flip... just to sit out. Did you know – in Panthea, if a shareholder's meeting is held and people with stock in the company don't show up, their stock doesn't count? If Odin abstained from a shareholder meeting, then you'd just need to control 38% of the stock to make a company-wide change. Okay, but I assume there are regulations where a shareholder's meeting has to be planned out in advance and signed off on – you can't just spring one and try and sneak through a proposal. Right. In that case, you'd need to get Odin to abstain from attending. Which... is basically the same thing as siding with Polly. So, basically: you two don't have a real plan. We're still in the planning stages! It's a project. Hm.Instead of pushing that angle, I had something else I wanted to ask.  You heard about us from a friend? Right. What friend of yours attends an anti-Duat meeting like that? As a matter of fact, I have a number of activist friends. I wouldn't have thought that was a surprise to you. Hm. Say, while we're on the topic of questioning each other, I've got some questions about you, 'Vels'. Oh? I find it odd that you feel so confident that the Duats don't know about you. I overheard them say as much. Okay. And... what exactly do you have to do so bad? I don't think you need to know that. Don't I? No. Hm. ...Whatever. Just don't screw me. Wouldn't dream of it.And with that, Chara turned and entered the house. And with that, I turned and left the house. [BGM: Silence]  As I left, I made sure to make note of the exact location of this place. Would be good to know. ...I'd make sure to get in contact with Krish before too long. They weren't happy with me now, but they'd get over it. I didn't like fighting with them, but it was inevitable. Polly's proposal might've solved the problem, but it wasn't a real solution; the Duats were still out for blood. So long as the root of our issues wasn't addressed, Krish would still be in danger, unable to leave hiding. And as far as I could tell, Polly's war with Art wasn't going to help fix that at all. ...Which meant the task fell to me. I didn't have an idea on how to make things right... guess I'd just have to poke around. …  Quite inscrutable, that Vels. Plays things close to the chest. I mean, we're seeing through Vels' eyes, and even we're somewhat in the dark! Wild. Wild. ...Wait, didn't you create all this? Isn't it your fault? Now, now, let's not play the blame game. Sure, I... presented things in a way. But even still, I'm not going to hide or change anything major. You want to get mad at someone, Vels is the one not giving anything away – in actions or thoughts. But surely you choose when the scenes start and stop? … Okay, fine, you caught me. I'm trying to add a little mystery to the proceedings. Sue me. Look, Vels is akin to a Black Box. ...Ah, I should clarify – a Black Box of Information is just a term for something where you can observe the input and the output, but none of the internal processing. I suppose, philosophically, the question is: does it matter what's inside the black box? It should, right? That's our gut instinct. If what's inside the Black Box doesn't matter, then functionally there's no difference between chatting with a real human or an advanced Artificial Intelligence. Although, I suppose some people would argue that? Turing Test? Electric Sheep? ...I loving hate sci-fi. Ironic, I suppose. We're wildly off track now. My point is that it's our gut instinct to think that what is inside the Black Box matters. But there are so many Black Boxes in the universe. Every other human mind is a Black Box! If you want to get creepy existential with it, everything outside your brain? Black Box. You can hope what you see and what you hear matches reality, but there's an awful lot of stories where that's not the case. So if the contents of the Black Box matter... you have to accept you'll never be able to know an awful lot of things that matter a rather large deal. And that's an uncomfortable thought. Maybe it's better to content yourself with the idea that only what is experienced matters. A more comforting option. ...Gosh, this is an awful long-winded way to say that Vels is pretty mysterious, isn't it? But it's an important topic, I think. Some may view being content to not open the Black Box as sloth; a lack of ambition. Information is power, after all. But... I disagree. Ignorance, too, can be quite a power. If you don't know what's inside a Black Box, you can just concern yourself with the inputs and the outputs. You can use that Black Box, guilt free. There's power in that. Though... only if you care about remaining human. Next update, let's see what Olif is up to!
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Oct 13, 2023 22:12
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Polly is chill when he's not being actively baited into fights... We're shown glimpses as to why Chara is willing to work with him. (Yet another reference to Art as the "oldest sibling".) I don't find CEO Polly as a realistic option. Setting aside the premise that Polly already has 20% (Odin 25%, Art 30%) and that Chara could rally most of the remaining 25%, Art has a good track record, and Polly doesn't. Chara's trying to expose Deisma dirt via the Olif route, but that's only anti-Art and anti-Odin. We need a lot more to be pro-Polly. While I enjoy the underdog challenger parallel (Aija vs Bach), I think they'd have a better time talking it out with Art. Vels is finally showing some agency too! Predicting that Vels is the person Marduk wishes he could recruit and that Vels decides the way out is to eliminate Marduk, forcing the Duats to implode from infighting between Yi's and Lara's factions. "Thane" and Krish get to move on and enjoy life, at least until rival gangs make their return to Panthea because of the resulting power vacuum.
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Oct 14, 2023 00:46
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No bet or minigames this time round, guess that was a pretty short card. Hmm, there's not a lot of information to go off on, but I wonder if Vels is actually a previous Thane; they're clearly good at fighting, they seem decently familiar with the workings of the Duats, but they don't know the specifics like that Yi was actually rotten. This might be that they used to be a Duat, but it's been a while. If they were the original Thane, that might explain a bit.
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Oct 14, 2023 15:26
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[BGM: Ante Up] What else... Seriously? Another big ol' video theorizing about the identity of the Auto Larcenist? People are still poking into that case? Goddamn. Well, I guess that's a little impressive. Anyways, Kamapa scrolling was turning out to be as typically uneventful as it often tended to be. Just some more time wasting. I decided to check my alt email's inbox. Maybe the Devil had left a response? I still remember the last email that they'd sent me. I had just asked him about theories regarding the identity of this 'God of Panthea'. He was happy to respond.   Ah, now we are getting to the interesting part. The identity of God; the most critical mystery Panthea hides from us. I have dedicated myself to finding them... but, unfortunately, they have almost completely obscured their identity. It makes sense – they would not be able to reign for as long as they have if they were sloppy. But they are not truly divine... rather, they are a human like me or you. Humans are flawed. Humans are fallible. And humans, almost unfailingly, will make mistakes. Somewhere... somewhere in this city, a trace leading back to them exists. It is my sworn duty to find that trace. Laying it on a little thick, huh? I mean, I guess it's good to have a clear mission statement, but it sounds like if that's your 'sworn duty'? You've been failing it so far. Here is what I assume to know about the God. It is my opinion that they are just someone like you and me. A seemingly ordinary person, not a grand monarch or celebrity – just a particularly intelligent citizen of Panthea. If a normal person was resourceful enough to understand where the locuses of power in this city resided... if they understood the advantages they could provide each other... Well, it would take a lot of determination, a lot of hard work. But if you were intelligent enough, focused enough, even someone like you or me could set such a network up. Now, we can make some assumptions – having this much power, naturally they wouldn't be struggling. People grasp for power chiefly to improve their own station in life. However, if the God is smart, they might downplay their own finances, at least for now, to hide detection. But I doubt they'd tolerate absolute poverty. So... a focused, intelligent, ordinary person of decent status who lives in Panthea. That is where my investigation web is currently fishing. When I read that, I remember audibly sighing. This guy really had a habit for seeing the forest for the trees. This idea that just some random guy could be behind things didn't track whatsoever. At this point, I was being more or less honest with the Devil... and consequently, I answered with pretty much my unfiltered opinion.   I sort of get where you're coming from. However, are you sure that's the right conclusion? I mean, think about it for a second. I really doubt these 'Angels' would agree to this alliance without even knowing who they were working with. And for people this influential, they could easily pool their resources to investigate who the God really was. …Yeah, no, I really just don't see any situation where the Angels are unaware of the God's identity. Which, in isolation, might not be a problem... but if the God was really just your average day Joe-shmoe, would they even tolerate listening to them? I mean, at the start, going along with the alliance makes sense, but there's really no reason to keep the rando in the loop after enough time – they don't really add anything of value. And, more to the point, they are a liability; in fact, if I had to guess, they'd probably just assassinate the God! Ultimately, I have trouble believing this current explanation. ...Say, here's another idea. Why couldn't one of the 'Angels' you identified just be the God? That would make sense, right? I mean, a lot of them already are pretty big egos – it makes total sense to me that one of them would set this whole thing up. To be fair, it's kind of hard to pinpoint who the head exactly would be. Aija, Art, Marduk... I could see any of them leading the charge. Or, alternatively, maybe there isn't a single head? I mean, it could just be a committee of powers. That actually feels like the most likely situation. It feels like some of those people wouldn't be likely to defer to others. They could just be meeting and coming to mutual agreements. The email, I felt, was fairly diplomatic. However, it had been quite a bit of time since getting a response. Had I offended him somehow by giving the lightest blowback? Or did he just have, you know, life to deal with? That was a reasonable enough explanation. However, as I checked the email tab once more, it appeared I had gotten a response. Lucky me. What did our best pal the Devil have to say for himself?  It is a reasonable conclusion that you've come to. I understand why you fail to see the bigger vision. However, it isn't right. When you really look at everything – look at everything in conjunction with each other – you begin to see the truth. It can't be a committee; it is too unified a vision. For a project like this, it needs a single helm – ask anyone who's ever worked on any creative project. ...Creative project? Democracy is nice, but to get poo poo done, you just need a tyrant, someone to call the shots. Without a dedicated leader or director – the one who has an idea of the larger picture – things fall apart. There are countless stories of this. As for one of the Angels being the God, again, it isn't a bad theory, but I just can't see it that way. After all, if that was the case, you'd see one of the factions getting an edge from this arrangement. However, there is a delicate equilibrium; this isn't serving towards any one person in power. Additionally, as you said, there are multiple big egos involved with this. None of them would willingly lower themselves to another big ego, that contradicts their view of the world. If they were to bow to anybody, it would have to be a neutral party worthy of commanding respect: the God. [BGM: Silence]  Aaand that's it. That's all he wrote. Seriously? Ah, well. I must've been forgetting the Devil's bullshit. This wasn't a reputable source I was conversing with, this was a conspiracy nut. Still, these were particularly weak arguments; I thought him better. The idea that you couldn't properly rule a city by committee is laughable – a horribly tortured argument. The idea that the situation not favoring one faction in particular means the God couldn't be a faction leader is ridiculous, as if that wouldn't be a result of the God making sure to stay fair so as to keep the arrangement together. The idea that Marduk or Aija wouldn't bow down to Art – or vice versa – when putting together a city-changing conspiracy is a fundamental inability to understand human behavior. I decided to tab over to my Kamapa account. I had sent a message to Chara a while ago, and I hadn't gotten a response when I last checked it. ...Which makes sense, she was busy. We hadn't talked since my role in the plan; hopefully the USB drive I delivered to her would be useful. I mean, it was really a pain getting involved in that whole mess – better have been worth it. Refreshing the page, it seemed I had gotten a message rather recently. Well, isn't that just a case of good timing on my part? Time to see what she had to say. I was a little excited opening up the message, thinking of the fruits of our little heist... hopefully there'd be some juicy poo poo. [BGM: Dummy]   Hey, Olif. Good to be able to finally get a message out to you. Sorry for being MIA for a while. Life's been busy, as you can imagine, but I just wanted to thank you. Honestly, when you suggested helping out on the heist, I didn't know what to think – I thought you were just pulling my chain. Or, worse, this was some sort of trap. But... you really came through. I mean, when we got to planning, it was like you were a completely different person... didn't realize you could actually be serious, but you were. And hey, the plan didn't exactly go perfectly – on my part, I had to improvise some. Because of that, I kicked up a bit of scrutiny. They found out about the theft faster than I expected. Nothing led back to me, of course, but Art's probably gonna be more on guard from now on.  But, all and all, I succeeded in my mission... and it was because of your help and suggestions. So, thanks. Aw, thanks Chara. It's nice to be appreciated. I am curious about one thing, though... why do the whole dead-drop thing? I mean, fair enough, wasn't a problem for me – and hey, maybe you're right that it was too much of a risk for us to be seen together after working on a theft and all. But I dunno. That sorta seems all the more reason to meet face to face for at least a drink or two. After all, we already know each other's identities. Hah. Not quite, Chara.  True, when you presented that Pyrim account, I was taken quite a bit aback. That bait was layered pretty deep. I made sure to connect it to my IP address in a pretty subtle way. You'd have to be a deft hand to make the connection and find that decoy account. But it was just that: a decoy account. Anyone who's been on the internet for any amount of time knows how vulnerable you really are on it – there are hackers everywhere. This much was only a sensible precaution. Maybe hiding my true identity from you wasn't strictly necessary, but... as far as I was concerned, the longer you pegged me as the person from that dummy account, the better. A dead drop works much better for me. Anyways, not to put a damper on our parade, but I'm a little worried about what this info actually does. I mean, don't get me wrong – there's a ton of poo poo on this. Like, oh boy, a cavalcade of financial information, transactions, conversation, etc... If you were a Wall Street Shark, this little info-stick would be a veritable arsenal that would let you wreck shop. I haven't even had time to look over it all! But... there's one little snag. Colour me surprised, but Art seems to have been paranoid. Finding hide or hair of him in this is tricky; he's gone out of his way to distance himself from these transactions. In fact, as far as I can tell, he's even gone as far as planting some red herrings that seemingly contradict the idea that Art is behind this: messages sent when Art was publicly accounted for, or information that Art should've known, and yet publicly, didn't take advantage of that knowledge. Nothing that can't be solved by some simple time-delayed messages and calculated losses, but if I didn't already know for sure that Art was behind this, looking at all this, I wouldn't peg him as the suspect. Legally, I suspect this info is pretty impotent, especially with the super dubious chain of custody. Now, if we could've made off with the whole laptop, then maybe we could've gotten something done. But, just this USB? Nah, just won't work. We could instead go the public route, try defaming him. But... that'll probably backfire as well. He's got teams of publicists and a decent reputation. Dumping all this info is revealing my hand – and, if his team has remotely decent digital forensics, my identity. All in all... it's looking like this wasn't the silver bullet I thought it was. Bummer. Ah well. That was sad to hear, but not entirely unexpected. From everything I knew about Art, he was the type to be thorough like this. Still, it was too soon to chalk this up as a failure. I decided to draft up a reply. [BGM: Silence]  hey chara! happy to hear that things went well. maybe now you're seeing my greatness lol. but in all seriousness im glad we were able to work together. sorry about the deaddrop thing. like you said, i just thought being seen together was risky. since we did. crime stuff. maybe that was excessive but live and learn ig. if you wanna meet up irl, just hmu at some point. im free a decent bit. that really sucks about not being able to screw art. ofc that rear end in a top hat covers his tracks. it is v v frustrating. still, i think this was probably still a win. the end goal is still to depose art, right? well then, this still helps that. like you said, this info should help for like, trade dealings and stuff. you probably have some decent money being a higher up olympo person right? and ur clearly smart. u just gotta make good on this info. then using ur resources, start snatching up stock. dont know the stock situation re: olympo super duper well. i know you said earlier that the deismas had a lot, but there's gotta be some thats up for public consumption. if you consolidate that, youll get some amount of leverage. (you don't even need to own it, just have temporary use of it.) obviously thats just step 1. but step 1 is a step u know? maybe i just dont want to feel like all our work was for nothing lol. but idk. ur fight, u tell me if that makes any sense. And with that, I sent the message. Hopefully it cheered Chara up, to some extent. ...You know, it was too silent in here. I thought about playing some music... but it was at that moment I heard a knocking on the door. ...A knocking? It took me a second to actually register this. Someone was knocking on this door? Pretty much nobody knew about this place. Which means... I sighed. Must be time. Well, had to get this over at some point. Couldn't say I was happy about it, but oh well. All because of that loving hidden camera. I can't believe I missed a hidden camera – who puts hidden cameras in visitor's lobbies?! No sense, makes absolutely no sense. Whatever. I was sloppy, and now I had to deal with this. Luckily she told me about the visit. If I was caught completely unaware, I'd really be upset. Slowly, I closed my computer and stood to my feet. I wasn't exactly eager to go to the door, but I had to before long. I walked forwards and grabbed the hotel room door... and I opened it. I was greeted with three imposing figures.  Hello?[BGM: Golden Point]   Are you Eris Smyth? Ayup. Good. Would you mind if we came in? We're acquaintances of your sister! We, uh, have some stuff we want to talk with you about.I let out a long sigh. Fine. Fine, okay, not like I've got anything else going on right about now. Might as well make yourself at home.Leaving the door open, I turned around and went to sit back down on the couch. The officers made their way into the room, remaining standing. It was a nice place I was living in – one of the best hotels in Panthea. I had one of the best rooms: nice large bed, freshly made; mini cooler stocked with water bottles; big window with a view of the city (covered by curtains as they may be). ...They weren't good enough curtains, though, failed to really block out the light. I knew that because the light seeping through the curtain was the only source illuminating the room at present.  Though, this didn't last for long, as Baldera walked over and flipped on a light switch. There, that's better. So, it's nice to meet you, Eris. Uh, my name's Baldera. Grumpy Pants over here is Seth. Is that really my nickname? Could that maybe not be my nickname? And of course, we've got Chief of Police Arrianne. It is not often I waste time with home visits like this. That right? Then why are you here, bothering me? I have taken an interest in your sister... so, by extension, I have some interest in you. Of course you have. Sorry, uh, circling back, are we bothering you? Totally sorry about that! We really don't mean to. Just say if we're a bother. Although you really don't have that much of a choice. Quiet, you. Eris, I'm friends with your sister, so I'm sure we'll get along. If you're friends with my sister, then I'm sure we won't. Are you not close with Laverna? Not close? Try 'actively attempting to spend as little time thinking of her as possible'. Huh. There's a story there. No, there isn't. Have you met her? Fair point. Well, uh, anyways, why don't you tell more about yourself, Eris? I'd love to get to know you better. What do you do for a job? Currently? I guess I'd be considered 'unemployed'. That's, uh, an interesting way to phrase that. Quite a nice apartment for someone unemployed. Well, up until a short time ago, I was a lawyer. Really? Yep. Not the fun kind, though – worked at a big corporate firm, helped with poo poo like mergers and patents. Paid awfully well, but I mean, my God... there isn't a job on Earth that'll suck your soul faster. Decided to bail, and I've been much happier since. ...Of course, I've gotta do something before too long, else my war chest is going to start running low. But for now, I'm just chilling. Hm. Impressive. You look a little young to be retired from corporate law. Thanks, I guess...? So, where are you from? I mean, you're not from Panthea, right? No, I'm not. Used to live in Hightower, actually. Oh, I know that city! I took a trip there once; it's nice. Then you weren't there long enough. But yeah, Hightower born – Laverna and I grew up there. And... there isn't a real reason we grew apart. She was just irritating to me. I mean, sure, it was a bit annoying that our parents always gushed about how gifted and talented she was when I was just as smart... And I am, for the record – graduated from law school, in case you forgot. But no, the real reason we aren't that close was just we had different values. She had a tendency to get all morally righteous, to poke into other people's business when no one was asking her to. Total snitch for the teachers... and just, like, weird. Like... really weird. I don't know why – we grew up in the same place, so I've got no idea why she acts like that. I don't know, she's just difficult to stand. I mean, did she ever tell you about her first investigation, and how that turned out? Total trainwreck. Come college time, we went separate ways, and have never really stayed in contact since then. That works just fine for me. Well, nice to know that there was a n-normal one in the family. Seth, that's not nice. Hey, don't tell me you don't appreciate on some level someone who speaks normally. Oh god, don't tell me she still does that faux accent thing. Holy poo poo, really? That's so embarrassing. ...Please tell me she's at least gotten better at it. Back in the day, I couldn't even tell what she was going for, it just felt vaguely European. That's what I'd, uh, classify it as. Jesus Christ. Laverna, Laverna, Laverna...I reached over to my water bottle and took a sip.  ...Hey, she's just handling investigations, right? No active crime scenes, catching the culprit, anything like that? For now, correct. Keep it that way, would you? She's good at that. She's pretty smart, and say what you will, she's got a pretty big heart – she wants to help people. But, despite all that... she's really dumb in a lot of the ways that matter. I just don't want her getting in over her head or something. And, knowing her, getting in over her head is like... gut instinct. Awww. You really do care about your sister, don't you? That's sweet. I care about my wallet – paying for a funeral is going to be a major headache. That's about as far as it goes. If you've really cut her out of your life, then why did you both end up moving to Panthea? ...I didn't have a good answer to that one. Okay. Enough of the pointless small talk. As you might have suspected, we did not come here for a house visit.  You are currently a suspect on an ongoing case regarding property theft. Specifically, you are suspected of abetting a thief who made away with a data strip containing vital information – top secret Olympo company secrets. Yeah, yeah, I know. Laverna told me all about this. Apparently, someone swiped the data from this computer and put it on a USB stick, then threw it out the window? And now, because of some stupid security footage, you think I have anything to do with that whole mess? You're wasting your time. She revealed all of that to you? I mean... in so many words. Hm. That feels like it borders on a breach of protocol. Having an investigator with a potential conflict of interest... Oh, ease up, Chief. She was just warning her sister on what we were going to be asking about. Where's the crime in that? Breach of protocol, as I said. Far be it f-for me to try and defend Laverna, but, uh, I don't exactly see the harm that could come from telling Eris just that much. Seems like pretty basic info. Thank you. Glad at least one of you has some sense. I also stood up for you! Okay, you can get partial credit too. Enough. Answer the question, Ms. Smyth. You haven't asked one yet. Let me do your job for you, though – what was I doing there? I was doing what I wanted. The Olympo main building's pretty; I was walking around the city and decided to check it out. Sat in the visitor's room for a bit, lost track of time. You really going to arrest me for that? Not for that alone.[BGM: Showdown]  Far as I see it, that's all you got. You wanted an answer; you got it. Sorry, but your accomplice must be somewhere else. Is that so? Unfortunately for you, it is not that simple. Based on my understanding of the case – and, Ms. Vasquez, correct me if I mess up somewhere, I was absent for this investigation – we have a very specific time frame for when it was dropped from the window, based on when an employee was getting coffee. You were in the visitor's center during that time frame. Ah. What a coincidence. I was pretty zoned out, though; the accomplice must have been a third party. According to the surveillance footage, you were the only person in the visitor's center during that critical time frame. The only one? That seems weird. Well, I guess the accomplice just didn't stay in the visitor's center. Are you suggesting that the accomplice waded into the water feature to pick up the data strip after the fact? You got it! Surely someone would have seen such a scene. Any proof of that? Any accounts saying that someone didn't enter the water feature at some point that day? Maybe another camera over there? Unfortuantely not. Then I think we can't make a judgment call. If the data strip was not caught, it would have hit the cement floor. The water would not soften the blow by a significant amount from a high fall. Knowing this, it is likely the strip would be damaged. Huh, yeah. Maybe. But... maybe not. There's some resilient tech out there – I don't think you can really make that argument definitively. A little insight from my time on the force: the ones who hide behind lack of definitive proof are, in reality, guilty about 99% of the time. Hey, would you look at that, I'm finally part of the 1%! Dream come true. Cute. Seth and Baldera very specifically were keeping quiet. They just watched this back and forth with bated breath. All right, fine, you really want to suspect me? Then why? Why? Why would I do this? How exactly did I get drafted to be a criminal's accomplice? Am I some contract thief? Do I have any connection to an Olympo employee? You tell me, Ms. Smyth. I do not know you – I am unable to make such a judgment call.I gave a short whistle. Okay. Okay... you know what? That one's fair, you win that point. Let me flip your question back on you: why did you take part in this theft? Money? A grudge? Can't answer that, because I didn't do it. But I can flip the question one more time. Why do you care about this so much? Why do I care about solving crime? Are you somehow unaware of what police officers do? Yeah, yeah, you solve crimes, big whoop. I know your track record – you let plenty of crimes fall to the side, crimes bigger than this. And yet, you're making house visits to vague suspects over a bit of stolen property. Alleged stolen property, I might add... Unless I wasn't told something, the idea that a data strip was even taken from the broken computer is pure speculation. What are you getting at? I just don't think it's a coincidence that you just so happen to care so much about what happens on Olympo's dime. Just admit it – you're just another one of their lapdogs. Just another branch of their private investigators that wears a fancy badge. I am no one's lapdog. It is pathetic that you have to devolve to baseless slander. I don't have to do anything. But it sounds to me like you have to bail out your employer, Olympo. That's what's really going on, right? You can admit it. You are imagining things. Yeah? Then why haven't I ever seen any of those Olympo bigwigs in handcuffs? Don't try and tell me that that office isn't a hotbed of white collar crime – if you put your mind to it, you could probably walk half the top floor of that building out in shackles. The fact you haven't tells me everything I need to know. Enough.Here we go. I had annoyed Arrianne to a breaking point. It is clear to me that this is a pointless meeting. You should pray that no further evidence shows up; if you are to be so lucky, then this will likely be our last meeting. I have wasted enough time. I wish you a good day, Ms. Smyth.And, just like that, she turned around and started to walk out. Don't let the door hit you!I had had a feeling that if I poked Arrianne enough, she'd just get up and leave, knowing that she had nothing definitive. Luckily for me... annoying people was a specialty of mine. Now I was just left with Baldera and Seth.  Uh... Baldera, naturaly, felt quite awkward. That could've gone better. Not my fault. Not saying that it is. Oh? So you think that it's Arrianne's fault then? N-no, not at all!Heh. Messing with her was turning out to be quite a bit of fun. Let me ask, do you agree with her assessment? Do you think I'm responsible for the theft? Uh, well... Probably not? Probably not? Yeah. Hm. All right. I like that answer. Oh, good. I was afraid you would've been offended. Takes a lot to offend me. All right, well, this was nice. I have to get going though – don't wanna keep Arrianne waiting for too long. But, uh, we should hang out sometime! You, me, your sister... we should have a girl's night out. It'll be fun! Mm. I'll think about it. There you go! I said I'd think about it! You'll come around!And, just like that, Baldera also left my room. With that, I was left with one. Seth had been quiet for some time. I just crossed my arms. [BGM: Kicker]  … You still here for a reason? You c-care about your sister, right? I don't– Quit the poo poo. Give it to me straight. ...Yeah, yeah, okay. I'd rather not see her hurt, if possible. If that's the case...Seth looked back and forth, checking for a non-existent threat.  You should try and convince her to back off. Back off? As you obviously know, she's really inquisitive. Raises a lot of questions. That's not, uh... it's not exactly safe, around here. A detective isn't safe asking questions? What sort of system is that? It's the types of questions she's looking into. Look, I'm not saying it's right; I'm just saying, Panthea doesn't have a good track record for things like this. People who pry into things... tend to 'fade out of the picture', one way or another.Hm. I wonder, did that comment have anything to do with Jacy? Or... someone else? It makes total sense that my sister is getting herself into danger. But... we're not that close. If I could've reigned her in, I would've done it a while ago. I get that, I get that. But still... you should try. If you don't, something might happen to her. There's nothing more painful than losing someone you're close to and knowing that you could've saved them. ...Trust me on that. … Fine, fine, you can't stop her from being her. At the very least, you should let her know that she's surrounded on more sides than she thinks. She needs to keep an eye out. ...I'll let her know. Okay then. I'll get out of your hair now.Seth awkwardly made his way out of the room. Thanks for the tip.Seth didn't respond, just briefly paused before continuing his exit. 'Surrounded on more sides than she thinks'... what are these sides? And... why did he wait until the others were gone before giving me that message? … Whatever. Whatever, forget it. I could deal with that whole encounter later. For now though, I just wanted to decompress. And a good way to do that would be to spend some more time on the computer. I opened it up, and finally put on that music like I said I would. Music helped me think, kept me in the groove. Okay, okay. Feeling better already. What to do? First up, I should probably respond to that email the Devil had sent. I didn't really have much to say, though. I considered for a minute how to proceed. Then, in defeat, I just went to the tab; whatever, I'd just be diplomatic.  Maybe. It is a confusing situation. I can agree that, at the very least, there isn't a clear solution.. but, I still think the problems I brought up with the theory that a complete stranger is the God hold up. I just can't picture that, though it's possible I just have less perspective on this whole issue than you do. Even still, I really think you might be a bit overconfident in your interpretation. With so little known, it just feels weird that you seem so certain. Could be mistaken, though. And with that, I sent the email. It was about as diplomatic a message as I could manage. Fundamentally, we just had different opinions on the matter – there was no getting around that. I tabbed over to Kamapa, and... ah, Chara had responded. This felt like a more fruitful conversation. Let's see where her head was at. [BGM: Silence]  I might take you up on that offer for drinks one of these days. Will probably be a bit too busy for the foreseeable future, though. I'm one step ahead of you on the whole 'stocks' idea; like you suggested, I've already been trying to consolidate as much stock as I can in my free time. Info like this will deffo be useful leverage in that whole struggle. Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Nothing is ffs. As much stock as I collect, it'll be pretty tricky to do anything unless I get at least two of the Deismas on my side – that should give you some idea of how much they hoard their poo poo. I'm pretty sure at least two of said Deismas are complete dead ends, which means a strategy revolving purely around gathering stock is kind of dead in the water. Luckily, there are still other avenues to pursue, but most that have any chance of success involve coming at Art directly. Scary prospect, to be sure. They're all pretty half-baked as well, but I'm gonna keep at it. One success propels to the next, you know? Ah. What a nice, optimistic message looking to the future. ...Almost felt out of character. Still, was good to hear. I quickly shot back a reply. good to hear, good to hear. excited to dethrone the douche. it'll be hard, but so's everything worth doing. obvs you know a lot more about this situation than me, but if you need some anon help again, you know how to hmu. i got ur back. gl. [BGM: Doubling Cube]  Aaaand send. Hopefully she got the sense that I wanted to earnestly help. I feel like she already thought that, but a little reinforcement never did anybody wrong. ...Oh, what's this? A reply from the Devil? This fast? Sort of unexpected. But, okay, let's see what he's got for us. Opening the email, I wasn't expecting much. And, sure... I wasn't greeted by much. Just a short message and an attached file. You need perspective? Very well. I'll let you peek at one of my cards. A recording, for your ears only. And that was it. Well, now I had to hear this recording. ...the hell? The recording was encoded with some bullshit encryption! Is this what the Devil meant by 'your ears only'? drat paranoid conspiracy theorist. What if I wasn't gifted with hacking? ...Well, I suppose it was something of a moot point – after all, I was. So... to work I went. … Actually, before I forget, I should mention: this puzzle also has blue tiles, which have numbers in them. All right, so... you know how I said that live regions can't have more than one numbered tile? So, I guess I kind of lied. See, blue tiles with numbers in them can be added into a live region. So, if there's a blue tile with a 3 on it, that tile can be included in a live region, and if it is, that region will be considered to contain 3 more live tiles. ...Well, not really 'can', blue tiles have to be added into another live region. They're like parasites. ...Ooh, or trojan viruses, that's hacker-y. Whatever, you get it. Get to work. Once again, an inclusion that's pretty straightforward to understand.  [You got 7 chips!] [BGM: Silence]  That took some effort. Better be worth it. With a chip on my shoulder, I pressed play on the audio file. Listening to it, it ended up being the audio of one side of a conversation. I didn't recognize the gruff voice, but by the end of the clip, I could make a pretty good guess as to the mystery man's identity.  It really is a pain. I mean, God, I'm the leader of the most fearsome gang to ever rule Panthea. Do I really have to listen to– ...Yeah, yeah, I know all that. Don't you lecture me about respect, I understand it better than anyone else. ...Yes, yes, results, I understand. Still, it is a matter of pride...The clip cut out there. ...Did Marduk, the leader of the Duats, just confess that he had to listen to somebody else? ...Huh. Maybe the Devil actually knew what he was talking about. …  So, we got ourselves a lawyer, eh? That's something. You know, people seem to really hate lawyers. They say that they belong in hell, that they're actually demons. Modern culture even likes to depict contracts as a signature weapon of Satan. Legal systems and hellish creatures are inextricably linked, for whatever reason, probably because both have to do with judgment and people are uncreative, but I digress. Lawyers are simply Devil Advocates. So, could I just say, as a big Satan fan: I'm offended. Don't pin that poo poo on us, are you kidding me? If you asked me, lawyers are far more aligned with angelic figures. They enforce rules, they forget human emotion, they protect the status quo. You could call the lot of them God's emissaries; that's a much more fitting moniker if you ask me. Much more scalding, too. But no, I'm surrounded by puritans. They don't see things clearly. But you're not like them, right? Right. That's why I like you. That's why we work so well together. So, to learn Eris was a lawyer... well, who knows. She used to be a lawyer; now, she's interfacing with the Devil. So there's hope for her, I think. Next update, let's see how Mercury's doing! 
Mix. fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Oct 19, 2023 |
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Oct 19, 2023 00:40
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The LP's gonna be taking a week or so off due to the fact I'm about to be thirteen hours away from my computer for, well, a week or so, so I figured meeting Eris would be a fun enough pausing spot 
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Oct 19, 2023 00:41
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Eris's name comes from the Greek goddess of discord, who has basically one major role but it's a doozy: She's the one who throw the golden apple labeled "To the fairest", which Athena, Hera and Aphrodite fight over, before calling in Paris to mediate, aka the thing that kicks off the whole Trojan War and by extension the plots of both The Illiad and The Odyssey.
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Oct 19, 2023 08:20
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Aw, Eris cares! Her in-person persona is nice to see. Laverna and Eris suit each other. With his mixed loyalties, Seth is in an right spot. Assuming Arrianne isn't corrupt, then Seth is safest if nothing big happens. Aija assassinating Laverna, or Laverna uncovering the truth are both bad for him. It makes sense for him to ask Eris to convince Laverna to lie low.
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Oct 19, 2023 09:36
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NeoRonTheNeuron posted:Aw, Eris cares! Her in-person persona is nice to see. Laverna and Eris suit each other. Laverna also did just poke her head into a Duat den, investigating the fake murder. I think that's part of what Seth meant by "surrounded on more sides than she thinks"
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Oct 19, 2023 14:30
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I honestly felt a bit of a threat in there, but that might be my knowledge of his dirty status
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Oct 19, 2023 20:10
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Mix. posted:img]https://lpix.org/4546690/BalderaSurprised.png[/img] Uh, well... Probably not? You've got a broken img tag here.
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Oct 19, 2023 22:04
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Can't picture Laverna as anything but this now
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Oct 19, 2023 22:25
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whitehelm posted:You've got a broken img tag here. woops, fixed 
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Oct 19, 2023 23:05
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 [BGM: Grand Slam]  Let's set the scene for a moment. Right now, I'm trapped in the middle of a small, dark, metal container. I'm stuck holding the nearest opening closed, and on the other side of this opening was a masked killer dressed in all black. They had a gun, and – as was just demonstrated – shooting at the container repeatedly might pierce through it. Inside this container was also some radhead who, seemingly, was also being hunted down by this killer. She didn't seem particularly friendly towards me. I didn't know if I could even trust her that much, long term. However, in this specific case, we shared a common goal... in 'not immediately dying'. Right now, we were on the deck of a ghost ship, out to sea in the middle of the night. People had been killed in the hull. It was unclear if there was anybody else on the ship, but if there were, odds are good that they're in league with the masked killer. ...Oh, and my phone isn't working. Okay, got all that? Good – those are the pieces we're dealing with. And... scene!   gently caress! If he keeps shooting randomly like that, we're gonna get hit!As soon as I began shouting, I felt once again the container begin to open up. Thane must've thought that my reaction might've signaled that I had let go. An incorrect guess. With as much effort as I could muster, I kept the container closed. Things were looking pretty hopeless; I looked over to my fellow target to see if she had any input. As it turns out, she had an idea of her own. With a solid kick, she opened the other side of the container. ...Huh? That side opens? Being honest, I had no idea, but makes sense, I guess. It wasn't obvious from the inside. I feel like, to know that, you'd need to be pretty familiar with these sorts of containers... but forget it, I wasn't gonna look a gift horse in the mouth. I began to run to the other side of the container; however, before getting too far, the other target put a hand on my arm. She also put a finger to her lips. It was pretty esoteric, but I got the message. We waited a few seconds... then we sprinted back out of the front entrance. As expected, we had a bit of a lead. See, hearing the other side open like that, hearing my moving footsteps, Thane, clever killer he was, meant to circle around and ambush us. Luckily, my partner in escape was one step ahead of him, and decided to just leave out the front. This trick got us one step ahead... however, one step ahead isn't that far ahead. As expected, Thane was quick to catch his mistake... and before we knew it, we were right back to the same ol' game of chase. Since he had a gun, we had a bit of a limitation in how we could run. If we didn't make constant turns behind cover, he'd just shoot us, and that'd be that; luckily, there were plenty of metal containers around the deck. The maze that I once cursed now felt like a blessing. Left, right, right... still had to keep in mind the edges of the ship.  Ha, it was kind of fun, in a disturbing way. ...That thought was a bad sign towards my mental stability, but this really was just the highest stakes game of tag there ever was – and I was always pretty good at tag. It wasn't just a game of physical endurance, not really. I mean, maybe if you played on a plain empty field... but if you played tag on a playground? Then it was a game of strategic encirclement. Every playground piece was a tool the runners could use to try and throw off the chaser. Fundamentally, in an open field with no interference, if the runner and the chaser are of roughly equal physical endurance, the chaser has a huge advantage... after all, the runner just needs to lag for a moment within the range of the chaser's reach, and it'd all be over. But, if you climbed playground equipment, you could “bank time” – and it would be twenty times faster to get off and away from the equipment than to initially climb it. If you stayed mindful of where the threats were approaching, what your exit options were, it was impossible to get caught. I remember I'd always argued for zombie tag, because if we just played regular tag I'd get bored; no one would ever catch me. Bold words, I know, from the person currently moments from being shot by an approaching killer. But the days of the playground had long passed me, and, being honest: I was starting to feel some exhaustion. I wasn't the only one; looking to my fellow target, they also seemed to be struggling somewhat in keeping up with me. From the sounds of Thane's approach, however, he seemed to be showing no signs of wear or tear. He was getting closer and closer. This couldn't hold... but, what to do?   Keep running.Huh? I could barely hear that, it was said so quietly. Obviously keep running, why would we not? ...Oh. I see. I get what's going on. My fellow escapee was slowing down as we turned the corner. I could guess what was about to happen. We turned the corner, and... yep. She instantly stopped and bent down, her attention now directed out to the other side of the container. She was waiting for Thane; she was going to directly attack him again. Which made sense, we could only run for so long, and we weren't getting anywhere the way we were going. The element of surprise was as good a way to try it as any other. But why tell me to keep running? Surely it would be better for us to take him on two versus one. In that case, I should stay back and help... right? But she said to keep running... ...No, I slowed down and turned around. And good thing I did that when I did; because of that, I was able to get a front row seat for the ensuing fight. Right as Thane began to round the corner himself, the redhead shot out with a fist, looking to sock him right in the side of the head. Sorry lady, but you were dealing with someone who had cyborg levels of fighting experience. In an instant, Thane came to a dead stop; he must've seen the attack coming from the corner of his eye. Not only did he stop, but he also leaned back... and because of that, my partner's first swing sailed right in front of Thane's head, inches away from his stupid helmet. This felt like a sign that the attack had failed, but my partner wasn't so quick to throw in the towel. As if she had planned for the first punch to miss, she twisted her body and, with her right arm, went for an uppercut right to the chest. An attack like that would wind anyone if it connected solidly; again, though, Thane was ready, and blocked the blunt of the attack with his right arm. The redhead then seamlessly transitioned into another swing to the side with her left fist... and, once more, Thane caught it with his left arm. However, both of those arm-based attacks were just meant to keep Thane occupied and distracted – as she swung those punches, the redhead was also swinging back her right leg. Right as Thane caught her left punch... she released and took a whack right at Thane's money zone.  Looks like third time's the charm. ...Or fourth, depending on your count. Whatever, point is, Thane was caught dead on, and began to keel over. An opening! Seriously, I wasn't expecting much, but right now, it looked like my fellow target was about to get the upper hand! Looking to make the most of this lapse in defense, the redhead clasped her fists together and jumped up – woah, she was looking to slam down on his head with a double fist strike? Ambitious, but, ugh, the wrong choice; she should've followed it up with something with less windup time. Against a normal opponent, sure, that might've been the right move, but against Thane? As I feared, right as the woman brought down the strike, he swayed right out of the way, dodging at the very last second. ...And, unfortunately, since she missed, she was also now wide open. Almost casually, his free hand shot out and slammed into the redhead's face. It wasn't even a punch, either, it was more of a... shove, it looked like. With that shove, the woman fell back, toppling onto the floor and skidding up to the edge of another container. Thane, pressing the advantage, calmly took two more steps forward and began to ready his gun. A simple shot or two to the splayed woman would end things. drat. Well, good thing I'm not one to listen to directions. [BGM: Burn Card]  Oh, hey, here's something to keep in mind! If a word pops up, that's your mind considering it, or whatever. Well, if it pops up again, then you're 'reconsidering' it – changing your mind. In other words, if a word pops up twice, then it should be as though you never thought of it in the first place. Of course, that means if a word then pops up a third time... Well, you're clever enough to work it out by yourself. I had already begun moving over to their fight, but now I was in a full on sprint. At the last possible moment, Thane looked over at me.  He looked just in time to witness me jumping out at him with both legs. That's right, the good ol' dropkick. Man, this thing really was a decent fighting move, huh? Apparently Thane's weakness was unexpected kicks from third parties when he was already aiming at someone on the ground with a gun, because he wasn't remotely prepared for this attack. The dropkick hit him full on, and he was sent flying to the ground. He slid back... and in the impact, he let go of his gun, which slid even further. This time, it was my job to grab my previous savior. I felt my mouth open before I knew what to say.   Hurry!I shouted this to indicate that actually continuing to fight Thane was a mistake. At first, this might seem like an odd choice – Thane was prone, without his gun, and it was two on one. We should keep fighting him, right? But no, my fighting experience indicated anything but. Even with the two of us pressing the advantage, I didn't doubt Thane would be able to end us both. What this surprise ambush should be used for is getting a more significant lead on Thane. Luckily, it seemed like my fellow target agreed with this assessment. She began to run away, and I made to follow her, but–  –Thane grabbed at my foot as I was fleeing. Luckily, I was able to spot this attempt in the corner of my eye, and jumped up just in time. That was close. Immediately, we began flooring it. Where to run?  Seeing a good path forwards, we made an immediate turn left. We followed that up shortly with a right turn... I just needed Thane to be far away, that was the only priority. As much distance as possible. We were in a full on sprint, until finally...  From what I could tell, we had put enough distance on Thane – what we needed to do now was catch our breath. So, here, when we were on the completely opposite side of the boat... we began to slow down, and catch our breath. Ugh... whooo... I listened intently for Thane, but no footsteps were to be heard. For now, at least, I was right: we had actually lost him. Well, that's nice. [You won 7 chips!] [BGM: Furiten]  Hey, now that we have a moment to ourselves, mind if I got your name? Moment to ourselves? We're still pretty hosed, dude. It's a big boat. We lost him. I think we've at least got a moment. Why do you want to know my name? Just so we can, like, talk? Seeing as we're sort of in this shitfest together at the moment, I thought it'd be nice... Jeez, is everything going to be a thing with you?She eyed me with suspicion for a moment.  Fine. I'm Lara. Nice to meet you, Lara. And you? ...Mercury. Mercury? Problem with that name? No, no. Just unique. There are a lot of pretty 'unique' names here in Panthea. Fair 'nough. Mind telling me what you're doing on this ship? Are you going to tell me why you're here? Now's not the time to talk about that poo poo, our lives are in danger! Sure dropped that quickly. Hey, you wanna give me poo poo, or try working on a plan? Plan. Plan sounds good. Only problem though: I don't know what we're supposed to do. Piloting this huge ship back to shore would take a bit, and will be a huge risk. No idea if there's somebody at the controls right now, but if there is, they're likely armed. ...And we're in the middle of the ocean, so it's not like we have an easy out. Pfft. Easy, we just gotta get to the lifeboat. Lifeboat? Yeah, it's on the, uh, starboard side? Is that the right term? That side.Lara pointed to where she was indicating. That's how I got here, I smuggled myself on the lifeboat when we went out to see....Of course. Obviously there'd be a lifeboat. Why didn't I check for that the moment I woke up? Ugh. I didn't really have an answer. Guess I'm dumb. Okay, yeah, uh, lifeboat seems like the safest play. We should try and angle towards that if we can. Great. Let's get going. Immediately, Lara began to move in the direction she had earlier indicated. Woah, wait!I grabbed hold of her arm. Annoyed, she shook me off. The hell? Sorry, sorry. But look, I don't think going there right away is such a good idea. Fuckin... Didn't you just say that the lifeboat was our best bet? It is! Which is why we should be wary about going that way. I don't follow. Thane's pretty smart. Heh, that so? ...Okay, that statement makes me think you believe otherwise. But earlier, when I was in the hull, when he lost me, he began to guard the stairs back to the deck. I think that's probably because he knew about the lifeboat, and wanted to cut off that possible escape for me. Now that we're on the deck, I think Thane's likely to skip the middle-man and puppy guard the lifeboat directly. If we go that way haphazardly, we're likely to just get sprayed with bullets! So what, you're saying we shouldn't take the obvious exit because he'll expect that play? In so many words. Heh. Ever heard of the Hangman's Paradox? Enlighten me. All right, so there's this crazy serial killer, he's scheduled to get strung up some time this week. On Monday, the warden tells the killer that they 're not going to expect it the morning his execution is announced. hosed up prison system, I know, but just go with me. Now, do you know what the prisoner figures? ...They can't be killed on Sunday, because if there's only one day left, they'd expect it. Exactly! So then, they can't be killed on Saturday, because if it got to Friday, and it obviously couldn't happen on Sunday, then obviously they'd expect it come Saturday. ...And the same with Friday, and then Thursday. Huh, you sure you never heard about this thing before? I'm just working through the situation logically. Hm. Anyways, the killer goes on to extend that reasoning throughout the whole week, and concludes it's impossible for him to be executed on any day. ...And then on Wednesday they're executed, and they feel like a real idiot. You were the one who reminded me we had limited time, right? Look, the moral of the story is, don't be like the stupid killer. Since the expected choice is so expected, sometimes it's unexpected. So really, there's no choice that can become expected! Uh...I feel like she skipped a few steps in there somewhere... however, she seemed confident, and began to move again. Okay, okay, wait.Lara paused, but didn't turn back around. We can go, but we have to be, like, super stealthy. Obviously. I don't mean, like, regular stealth, I mean we need to actively check for any places Thane might be waiting to ambush us from before we get in that lifeboat. Okay, okay, I get it. I don't want to get shot either! I'm not saying you do, I'm just saying we should be careful and– Alright, I'm bored now.Lara resumed her trek to the lifeboat. Annoyed, all I could do is follow her. Slowly, stealthily, we made our way towards the lifeboat. Luckily, Lara seemed to take my advice to heart; she moved with extremely light feet, making sure to check her corners and take frequent breaks. For my part, I just tried to not make noise and listened out to try and hear where Thane was. ...Unfortunately, at the rate things were going, I was more likely to hear my own heartbeat than any noise Thane was making. Unlike before, I couldn't place him anywhere. There were two options; either he was already in one place, stationary, or he was also stalking around silently, looking for us. Were we currently in a game of deadly cat and mouse... or were we slowly making our way right into a trap? I couldn't tell. All I could do was keep walking. Step, step, step. The ship wasn't that long, and yet it felt like it was taking forever to just simply cross from one end to another. Part of it was the painstakingly slow rate at which we moved... part of it was how fast my mind was moving. I always thought I was good at thinking pretty quickly, but time really did move slower when you were in danger. I had always thought that cliché, but never thought there was any truth to it. I wonder if it's a sort of chemical thing, or if– … … … [BGM: Silence]  Lara and I were leaning back against the nearest container, motionless. We didn't move. We didn't breathe. I felt like I was choking. Right in front of us, we had gotten a glimpse of Thane. He was slowly walking in the other direction... I'm pretty sure he didn't see us, he wasn't facing our direction. Still... Holy poo poo. … *blam!* My heart dropped the moment I heard the gunshot. I felt like yelping. Where was it aimed?? Had he found us? ...Wait, I didn't hear an impact sound. No impact? *blam! blam!* Two more shots were fired, but this time, I got a glimpse in the sky of what was really going on here. Those shots were being fired into the air. Thane was purposely giving away his location – looks like we were trying his patience, and he was fed up with the slow and steady method. To be honest, I hadn't thought Thane's patience could be broken... but as that thought passed through my mind, I started to hear his mechanical voice cut through the silent night. [BGM: Danrasu]   Come on out, Lara! We really don't have to do this. Deal with the trespasser, and we can come to an understanding. You don't have to die here! Because... that's what's going to happen, you know? Die here. We both know you can't take me on. Twice now you've fluked your way out of death, but I'm on guard now. No more little tricks will phase me. ...And I really don't want to kill you. …Anxiously, I looked to Lara. These two clearly knew each other – were in cahoots. Was she thinking about taking this deal? I saw her roll her eyes. Okay, looks like she found this proposition completely ridiculous. Thank God; good to know I wasn't going to get sold out. But Thane wasn't done yet. What do you think you're going to accomplish if you escape, huh? Because, obviously, you're looking to escape. Do you think if you can get back to safe land, you'll have won something? You report this to Marduk, and suddenly you've won? What makes you so sure he doesn't know about this, huh? 'Cuz you're saying that aloud, you fucker... SHUT. THE. gently caress. UP.He was right there, Lara, do you want to be shot? ...Okay. Here's a better question. Do you think he'll particularly care? You think that will be the least of your concerns, when he learns your dirty little secret... Little Miss Naomi?I saw Lara visibly freeze up at this, but... I had no context for what he was saying. However, I could guess it wasn't good. Yeah, that's right. I know. The Mandjet did its job. Cheeky little bitch, aren't you, thinking you could get away with this? Thinking that someone like you could lead the Duats? Ha! As if. Sorry to say, your gal down in the hull didn't have as tight lips as you must've thought when you confided in her. Really didn't take long for her to cough that up – just two fingers!I could visibly see Lara shaking; with rage or with fear, I wasn't sure. I tried lightly putting a hand on her shoulder, just to ground her to the situation... however, the instant look of fury I got from her signaled that maybe this wasn't the right tactic to take. Face it – you will never be more than what you are. Frankly, you are already above your station. … I know you can hear me! Just come out already! To illustrate the point, Thane fired another shot in the air. It was as though he was in a completely different mode. He was kind of acting like this when I'd caught him torturing that old man... a side for talking poo poo, a side for murder, is it? Honestly, I don't give a poo poo if you get away. Like I said, you can't touch me. It's really just that mystery passenger I want dead. … Look, you've got one chance! Kill me now; if you don't, I'm bringing this ship back to shore and speaking to Marduk. When he learns the truth, you're sure as poo poo not gonna get the headship of the Duats. ...And there's no loving way he's giving it to Yi. It's going to fall to me – I'll get what should've been rightfully mine, had that old bastard not thrown a fit the moment I tried putting one of his lectures into action. That is, unless you come out right now! Lara's hands had balled into fists. Uh oh. She began to move forwards, and once again, I grabbed her arm. Again, she pushed it off and began to open her mouth to rebuke me. Panicking, I covered it with my other hand. If she was pissed before, now she was furious. I put a finger to my mouth, signalling what we needed to stay mindful of. Still, she pushed away my hand. Before she spoke, however, I started talking very quietly. Look, think for a second, would you? Why would he shout all this out if it were true? He's provoking you! He knows if he gets you angry enough, you'll try and take him out... and knows he can kill you if you fall for it. But– We've got a perfectly fine plan with the lifeboat. We know he's not puppy guarding it right now. Let's take advantage of that. … Wordlessly, Lara began moving towards the lifeboat, hands still clenched. She was no longer moving slow and steady. Oh well, hopefully Thane was too busy monologuing to notice. At the very least, I had successfully avoided the worst case scenario. At this point, we were already pretty close to the lifeboat. Just a bit closer... Few more steps... There! I saw it, over the edge: a lifeboat. It was raised to be right under the edge of the ship. [BGM: First Rubber]  At this point, the time for subtlety was over. Lara and I pretty much just ran straight over to the lifeboat. With reckless abandon, I jumped over the railing and landed in the boat. Lara got in with a little more tact, and began messing with the winch controls. However, it was at this point our noise had attracted the attention of our very own masked murderer. Thane popped out from behind a container. poo poo! I suddenly fell flat, lying in the boat, hoping to avoid any gunshots. Lara, on the other hand, frantically began messing with the controls faster. She hit a button, then nervously ducked with her hands over her head as the whole lifeboat began to drop. *blam!* Great timing, too, because Thane had just let out another shot where Lara had just been moments ago. Thane really was always a second late with the shot, huh? ...Was he just a bad shot? I mean, it was starting to feel like that, to be honest. Or... maybe I was just particularly lucky. Anyways, not remotely the time to start questioning the abilities of the person currently trying to kill me. We may technically be on the ocean, but we were still shackled to the Mandjet.  Get the boat started!Lara had to shout over the crashing water, which was now quite loud being this close to the waves. On it!I rushed over to the back of the boat to rev up the motor. I had never really operated a motorboat like this, but boy if there was ever a time to start. As best as I could tell, I managed to get it started; Lara had also just managed to pull off her own side, properly getting the lifeboat free. As soon as she had finished this, I was suddenly pushed back – I had to grab on to prevent myself from falling out of the lifeboat. Apparently I had set this thing to maximum speed. Woah, this speed, it felt– Get down!Lara shouted at me. Before I could comprehend what she meant, she grabbed my shoulders and forcibly pushed me down. *blam! blam! blam!*  ...Again, dollar short and a day late, Thane. It didn't take a genius to imagine what had happened: once we'd dropped down, Thane began running over to the side of the ship. *blam!* When he got to a position where he could lean over the rail, he continued firing the pistol. Unfortunately for him, hitting a rapidly moving lifeboat was a tricky prospect. *blam!* Still, you couldn't say he wasn't determined. *blam! blam!* Shot after shot, he fired off into the ocean, vaguely in our direction. After every missed bullet, his odds for success with the next decreased. Lara and I just huddled at the back of the boat – crouched down, gritting our teeth as the cold water and wind splashed in our faces, with the full knowledge that any moment, Thane might roll well, get lucky, and send a chunk of metal right through the back of our throats. But, eventually... after far, far, far too long, I no longer heard the sound of bullets. Hesitantly, I started to get up... and turned around. [BGM: Silence]  Yeah, at this point, we had well and truly put some distance on the Mandjet. You'd need a sniper rifle to reliably hit a fast-moving target at this rate. So then... were we free? [BGM: Hatei Tsumo]  Scootch over.Lara had also begun to get up, and now that we weren't in imminent danger, this huddling no longer felt comfortable. I moved to the one side of the boat, and Lara the other. The wind was really rough. Well... that made sense, when we were moving this fast. I looked forwards; we still had a way to go until shore. However... I looked back. We had put distance on the Mandjet. Then... was I free? Had I escaped the ghost ship alive? Was this night of torment... over? Ha ha. I could almost cry. It felt unreal. I put my face in my hands. God, I really was going to live, huh? I had been holding back how crazy this night had been until now, but... knowing that I could actually get out alive, go on to finish my mission, it was truly– … [BGM: Silence]  Argh, where was that bright light coming from? I took my head out of my hands, and instantly I put my hands up again, shielding myself from the blinding light. Moments later, we were out of the direct gaze. However, a couple seconds passed, and the light caught back up to us. Though squinty eyes, I looked out, trying to get a better look at where it was coming from... and then I saw it. A bright light, atop the Mandjet, was being directed right towards us. And... that wasn't the only thing coming in this direction. It was hard to tell from this perspective, but no, no... the Mandjet was moving. Turning and moving in our direction. ...Something that big shouldn't be able to move that fast, and yet, it was. It was a nightmarish titan of a vessel, and yet, it moved with a surprising amount of force. It was practically keeping up with us. ...In fact, was it faster? I couldn't quite tell, but it seemed plausible. If you had any naive ideas about us being out of the woods... think again. They don't call Thane the 'Shadow of Panthea' for nothing. His job is to kill people – and he's good at his job. He is not going to stop tracking us down until either we completely shake him off, he's dead, or we are. That... I... Sorry bud, but this night's far from over.…  Classic. Everybody loves the “We're saved! Oh wait – no we're not!” bit. Or at least I do. Guess I can't say if everyone does. But I mean, I didn't mean the saying literally. No one does. There's no way to know if everybody thinks something. It's a complete Devil's Proof. 100% of the time, that saying is not said literally. But, uh, I guess that's true for most sayings, isn't it? That's why they're sayings! I digress. In regards to the scene, is it just me, or did this one feel a little short? Just me? Like, not criminally short... I don't know, this was a clean end point, which I think is more important than consistent scene length? Maybe? Look, more work goes into creating these cards than just the, you know, creation – which, yes, in itself is an impressive feat that makes me as like a God. But there's also a creative direction to it! …I mean, yes, okay, not a ton of it. It's mostly just a reproduction of what happened. Still, there are details I have to think of, like how to separate the cards – that matters. We have gotten wildly off track. Wasn't there a bet we have to check on? ...Right, right, the one about where Mercury would end up after two scenes. Well, it's been two scenes. And though it's not the same boat, Mercury is still on a boat. So, uh, guess you win. Good for you, I guess. Really made a keen judgment, or something like that. ...Okay, I'll be real, I feel like our conversation this time was a little all over the place. Perhaps I'm not doing the best job right now as a Storyteller. Just been a little distracted. There's some stuff going on outsi– ...You know what, forget it. Let's just move on. ...Next update, we're going back to “Thane”.
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Nov 1, 2023 01:08
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We're back! I also did some thinking while on my trip, and I think going forward I'm going to change up the update pattern (unless the thread dislikes the idea, anyway); basically, I've been kinda feeling like some of these "cards" don't really break in the middle too well, it kinda kills the flow a little, so what I'm going to try doing going forward is have the updates be a little less regular but instead I'll just post the entirety of a "card" in one shot, just back to back, so you get the full story chunk in one sitting and can digest it as a whole from the get-go instead of digesting it in pieces like it's been thus far. We're not quite halfway through the story yet, so I think there's still time to adjust to a different update schedule
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Nov 1, 2023 01:12
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I can't remember, is this the first time we've seen a mechanic from a stack show up in another? The 'fighting' minigame I think is normally Vels' territory, right?
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Nov 1, 2023 01:18
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ApplesandOranges posted:I can't remember, is this the first time we've seen a mechanic from a stack show up in another? The 'fighting' minigame I think is normally Vels' territory, right? "Thane" had to hack into Thane's phone previously
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Nov 1, 2023 01:20
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Mix. posted:
Uh-huh. <suspicion increasing> Have we lost any of these bets yet?
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Nov 1, 2023 02:46
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Called it! A boat was needed no matter what for Mercury! Laverna's 2nd part has us losing a bet over who died first. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=4036012&pagenumber=4#post533785588
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Nov 1, 2023 04:36
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NeoRonTheNeuron posted:https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=4036012&pagenumber=4#post533785588 <suspicion eases slightly>
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Nov 1, 2023 04:55
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Do you think the Thane Mercury is fighting is the one we follow in Stack #6, or the one before him that the impostor killed and replaced yet?
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Nov 3, 2023 23:00
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The Duat power struggle seems more advanced than in the imposter's card and this guy seems to be a terrible shot against anything that isn't moving. It feels out of character for our imposter, but it has to be him or yet another new thane.
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Nov 3, 2023 23:44
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I'm still on board with Thane getting replaced every other month with the new guy who kills him.
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Nov 4, 2023 06:09
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Have we heard the name Naomi before? I feel like it has come up before, but can’t remember where.
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Nov 5, 2023 02:01
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Lara's last name is Naomi. Thane saying "Little Miss Naomi" isn't the issue; the two of them are colleagues under Marduk. It seems like this Thane knows one of her dirty secrets though.
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Nov 5, 2023 02:08
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| # ? May 29, 2024 06:33 |
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 [BGM: Bidding]  As I reclined in my seat, I had to wonder how I got to this point in my life. I mean, from a third person perspective, looking in at me, it wasn't the most unreasonable position. Right now, all I was doing was relaxing at a table in a cafeteria – a reasonably nice cafeteria, too. The tables inside all had pretty comfy chairs, and there were nice decorations lining all the walls. ...Of course, sitting in a restaurant like this in the dead of night was a little atypical. Doing so with no staff in sight, doubly so. But, you know, still not overly odd. Then you factored in the people I was sitting with. Yi, who was passively sharpening his knife... Zaochi, eagerly typing on his phone... All right, now we were entering slightly weird territory, but still manageable, definitely manageable. It only became truly bizarre when you learned the context that we were waiting to ambush the store owner when they arrived. It only became truly bizarre when you learned the context that we were waiting to ambush the store owner when they arrived. ...Okay, maybe 'bizarre' wouldn't be the first word that comes to mind hearing that. But it fits, I'd say. It certainly wasn't normal.   It really is a nice place. I mean, the meal I had last week? Mwah. Chef's kiss. That's why it kills me, ya know, that it's had to come to this. Why you can't fuckin' trust people – I always knew Milo was an rear end in a top hat. Milo just has a different set of beliefs than us. Different values. It's commendable, in most circumstances. Unfortunately, this isn't exactly a difference that can be reconciled. But it is a shame though, it really is. Good restaurants are hard to come by, and it feels like they're shutting down every other week. Hell, it feels like we're shutting them down every other week. Hey, don't put that on us! Not our fault people are so hesitant to play ball. Needless to say, between the meeting at the V-Hall and now, I was unable to come up with a reasonable way to get out of this event. I considered just not showing; after all, I had been 'seen' at the meeting today. That should throw off the time of death, cause of death... but it was shallow. A couple hours and a hollow appearance would be seen through pretty quickly once investigations really started, and the officer's meeting only redoubled my suspicion that if I died, Marduk at the very least would want answers. If I bailed, they'd probably come to the conclusion that the Thane they met was a fake before too long. I'd be in the same position as before. No, no, maybe after enough time has passed, I could abandon the Thane mantle. If I could successfully pull off this ruse for long enough, and then vanish, that might actually throw them off for good. But a brief morning appearance? That was nothing. ...Well, it's not like my free time between the meeting and now was completely useless. I was able to hack into the other burner phone. bI didn't know what I was expecting to find, but I was still surprised by its contents. For one, the phone was internally labeled 'v.' Just... 'v'. If that wasn't odd enough, the phone only had a single contact: 'The Bastard'. The only calls this phone had ever made were to and from 'The Bastard', and there were only a few calls, enough to count on a single hand. I couldn't get any other usable info off the phone, so it was still a pretty big question mark to me. A part of me wanted to try calling the number – understand what I was missing about Thane. A far larger part of me realized that was a terrible, terrible idea that I should attempt under absolutely no circumstances. I mean, Jesus Christ, I was already pushing my luck an awful lot just sticking with my forced meetings. Calling a complete stranger with no context for the vague promise of maybe learning more about Thane was a risk decidedly not worth taking.  You know what your problem is, Thane?Oh, Yi was talking to me now. Awesome.  What? You're too much of a follower. If you want to get ahead, you need to be more than that. A leader? No, no, a free thinker. Way I see it, the world's survival of the smartest – your power on this world is equal to how many good ideas you can come up with. It's certainly your power in this organization. Like, look, want to know how I got to be a Senior Officer? We used to be having a slump with recruitment. The Duats were getting a bad rap, we just had this big blowout war with the Shikome, nobody wanted to join... and initiating people was risky. So whaddya do? ...What do you do? There's a lot of troubled youths in Panthea. Ones that have turned to petty crime, to alcohol, to drugs. You know what these kids need in their life?  The Lord!At this, Zaochi snickered. ...Zaochi snickered a lot. It was annoying. Luckily for all the concerned parents of Panthea, there was an option. A church outreach program for troubled youths that would watch over their troubled teens and teach them the light. Perfect opportunity right there – got the pastor to nix the whole 'God' spiel and instead teach the little brats how to operate as Duat members. Soon enough, I created an operation where troubled kids with criminal tendencies came to us. The parents were shipping them to us! All of a sudden, we were getting an influx of members from middle-class and even upper-class teens. This was a previously untapped market, and with a little ingenuity, I cracked it wide open for Marduk. Wow. That's despicable. Right! That's just one of a dozen ideas I cooked up that year alone. It's through constant innovation and diligence that you improve your station in life. Don't forget that. Understood. Uh huh. Something tells me this lesson might go over your head. ...Ah, it's fine. You just do you."I was curious. This was something of a risk to my cover, but... I'm curious, Yi. Remind me, how exactly did you get wrapped up in the Duats? You don't remember? ...Actually, now that I think about it, I don't know if I've ever told you the full story. You haven't. Huh. All right, I'll fill you in. Not a particularly interesting story though. You see, in a past life, I was actually an ethics professor. I got a pretty nice job teaching at a college outside of Panthea. So I left, set up shop there, lived the nice life. And it was pretty good... for a time. Then came along this rival professor. And boy, was that guy ever the rear end in a top hat. Everybody hated him, none more so than myself. He was an offense to every belief I held. Plus, more and more rumors came out about improper conduct with some of the female students. Nothing ever stuck, and he wasn't fired. Probably because of the donations he had made to the place. I view the whole situation through quite different lenses now, but at the time, I was younger, more idealistic; I couldn't stand for it. He needed to be punished. And for some reason, for me, I jumped to murder. Guess even before the Duat life, violence was something of a second nature for me. God, murder for no reason other than moral outrage. What was I thinking? The older you get, the more you hate your younger selves. Remember that, make sure you keep that in mind, stay humble. So you ended up murdering this guy? Yup. Had a pretty good plan worked out for it too. This night where there were fireworks, I went into this one empty room, and set up a super hard sniper trick shot. ...Oh yeah, I got my hands on a sniper rifle beforehand. The explosions covered the shots, and eventually I got a super tricky angle that hit a room on the complete other side of campus. I had this stand which kept the rifle completely in place where I left it. I put up this sign calling the room where the rifle was off limits. I had left the window of the target room open, and I replaced the wooden panels on the wall which had bullets in them in the dead of the night. I had a specific mark figured out. Then - and this was the genius part - I deliberately got in an accident that broke my right arm. Few days later, sent this anonymous threatening letter to the professor. Easy to push him around, get him to stand on the mark. I used my left hand to fire the rifle, and since the stand was firmly in place, I made the trick shot. I left the sniper rifle in that room, but disposed of the stand. When the ballistics report came in, the police would deduce the shooter came from that room. But actually hitting that shot would be super difficult. Impossible for somebody who broke their dominant arm, and I had the medical records to prove that. Wow. How thorough. Right? I thought it was pretty clever. Unfortunately, wasn't clever enough. I had a pretty piss-poor understanding of how murder investigations actually progressed. It was clear that the walls were starting to close in on me. I had no intent to spend the rest of my life incarcerated, so I fled back to Panthea... but I couldn't just hide out here, I needed criminal backing to escape the law. I had always known about the Duats. I went to them, explained the situation, sold my own skillset, how I could be useful. So I was initiated into their ranks and started doing work right away. And in turn, the little murder investigation problem went away, 'cuz you know, criminal organizations are pretty good at handling situations like that. And that's the story in full – not particularly amazing or noble or anything, but that's life. drat. To be honest, I didn't know how to react. It didn't really change how I felt about anything. It didn't make me feel angry at Yi, or feel sympathy; I just heard it and thought, 'yeah, seems about right'. ...Well, now I knew. Somehow I doubted this little anecdote would be a particularly effective bullet of information, but the more ammo the better. Haven't heard that story for a minute, Yi. Well, I don't like to revisit it that often – kinda a bummer of a story. But if our good friend Thane wants to know, then I'm happy to tell him any time. Besides, how else are we gonna kill time? Right? Like Jesus Christ, how long is this gonna take? I don't like having to wait this long. Xia was right to bail. Hey, the man was supposed to return five minutes ago, don't blame me.Just then, the door opened. A plain looking man walked in, leaned over and turned on the lights. He didn't notice our presence until he turned back around... and then he jumped nearly a full foot into the air. [BGM: Ones Are Wild]  Well, speak of the devil. Milo! What are you doing here? Y-you... How'd you get in here? Gotta say, you don't have a bad set of locks here. Took me a solid couple minutes to crack open the door. ... It's been a while since you showed your face back around here. I know you've been on the lam for a minute, trying to give us the ol' run around – guess you knew the poo poo you were in. How'd you know I was showing back up here tonight? We have our ways – I thought you knew that by now? ...Well, if you came back for as lame a reason to get some of your belongings, then clearly not.Milo looked down. He couldn't meet Yi's gaze. I saw his eye twitch towards the door; was he considering just trying to sprint away? He must've known he wouldn't get far. Perhaps he correctly suspected backup waiting outside... or perhaps he guessed that the three of us were armed - right again. He was very clearly outmatched. The only path where he had a chance of getting out of this alive was to play along for now and hope for either mercy or a lucky chance. Decent survival instincts – I couldn't help but respect it.  So, Milo, I think we're due a little chat. I don't have anything to say to you. Oh? Oh, is that right? That's a real shame. I had some questions I was just dying to get answers for. But of course, if you wanted to speed up the schedule... all the same for me. ...What do you want to know? I was just curious, completely for my own sake, whether or not you were aware of a basic rule of life in Panthea. You don't try and snitch on the Duats. If you do, there will be hell to pay. Go to the cops, testify against us? we make your life hell We respect it more if you flat-out attack us. But squealing? Capital offense. You're aware of that, right? I can't imagine any business owner in your position could be ignorant of that, but... maybe it's possible. If you weren't aware of that, well then, punishing you for a rulebreak you weren't even aware of is downright unfair. 'Look, that's why there's rules, understand? So that you think before you break 'em'. Does Terry Pratchett count as philosophy? Zaochi, how the gently caress did you know that was a Terry Pratchett quote? You recommended his books! You actually listened to my recommendation? Of course! If I didn't, I wouldn't have asked for the recommendation. Aww. Milo. Right, right. So, what is it, Milo: ignorant or rebellious?" Of course I loving knew, it's how you people get away with walking over us all. All right. So you actually knew what would happen if you squealed. Interesting. I don't know the answer I expected, honestly. Then, if you were aware of the rule, why'd you call the cops? Did you actually have faith that they were going to do anything about it? drat right I had faith in the police! Why are you acting as though that was a foolish impulse?! Criminals can't just do whatever they want! There are laws! Heh heh heh. Laws, huh? 'Good people don't need laws to tell them to act responsibly... ...and bad people will find ways around the law'. I'm sort of happy, in a weird way, that we found a guy who actually thought the police are still able to touch us in this day and age. It's like finding a four-leaf clover. But even if your accusation stuck, it wouldn't have changed things. Another wing still would've made sure the rule stood firm. But at the very least, three of you would be in jail. Ha! So you wanted to strike at us, fully aware of the retaliation you'd receive? I like it! Nostalgic. …Did you guys even do it? Yi seemed genuinely taken aback by this statement. Oho? What's this? You, the one who so confidently and severely made accusations against my very character, are now no longer sure of my guilt? I thought you would've bet your life on the fact that we were the scum of the earth. What's brought on this sudden change of heart? ...All common sense tells me it had to be your gang. But when the police came in, they proved that it was impossible. Even that private investigator lady, she couldn't find a way that you could do it. So you're ignoring your feelings towards us and actually acquiescing to the evidence? My, my. It takes an awful big man to do that.Yi paused, then leaned in slightly. But for the record, we did steal your little heirloom.Milo's face was instantly awash with surprise and frustration. You... It's making a lovely little addition to our mancave. Quite pretty, right guys? Totally brings the room together! I can see why you liked it so much. Though, liking it enough to go and waste your life like this seems like a lot. gently caress. How? How'd you get away with it? Oh, come on man, a magician never reveals their secrets! It's way more fun to leave you in suspense. Let's just say... The way we got away with it is the reason you'll never be able to touch us. Because for every brave little dipshit like you, there's a dozen smart cowards that know how to bow to power. …At this point, Milo just looked defeated. The chance to catch the criminals was, in fact, right in front of him... but they got away just by the virtue of being a bit cleverer than anyone else. I couldn't say I wasn't a little disappointed myself. Instinctively, I tried to hide that from my face, until I realized that my face wasn't being observed – no need to hide anything. My facial expressions could root against the Duats all they wanted in here.  That about wraps up my questions. ...Oh! One more actually, just a nice quickie for you. What? Got any final words? Anything deep in your heart you need to let out? Maybe a desperate plea? A good reason to keep you around? If you earnestly ask for forgiveness, I'll actually consider it, I promise – I truly have a distaste for spilling needless blood. …Milo just stood there in silence. It looked like he had something to say, but just couldn't get it out. He opted to just stand there, staring. Until finally, when it looked like Yi was about to say something, he shouted out. gently caress you! gently caress your whole crew! Every single one of you deserves to die a painful death! And that day's coming – you might not realize it, but people like you never get away for long enough. Call it naive or illogical or foolish or whatever you want, but there is a thing called karma in this world. Before long, it's going to swing down and crush your whole group. And when that happens, I hope your last thoughts are to flashback to this moment. To realize I was right. Yi looked back at me and Zaochi, feigned surprise on his face. Wow. Scary.Then, very slowly, Yi took a cigarette and a lighter out of his pocket. He lit the cigarette, and took a long puff. Guess we'll have to see. In the afterlife, let's meet up and discuss. ... All right, enough fooling around.Yi turned over to me. Thane, he's all yours. If you wouldn't mind, handle things back in the employee area, would you? Like I said, I don't like watching violence. Especially not when I'm having a good smoke.[BGM: Silence]  ...Wow, was I dumb. It took me this long to realize the very obvious. I was here for a job. This guy had broken the code, and had to be punished... and Thane was the punisher. I was the punisher. With my own hands, I'd have to... I had to steady myself. My facial composure was shot, but even my body was beginning to shake. Not here. I couldn't unravel here. For now, the first thing to do should be to separate from the others. That would at least give me space to breathe. Game time. I was Thane, the Shadow of Panthea. I was to be feared. I nodded my head over to the employee area. You heard him. Get walking. ...Why should I? You're just going to kill me, right?"loving Milo... Work with me. Knowing Thane, a response he'd give would be... Your question shouldn't be whether or not you're dying tonight. That question is decided. You should instead be wondering how long I'll make you suffer before I let you die.That did the trick. Instantly his face flushed. I almost expected to hear Zaochi snicker again, but I heard nothing from him... I wonder if I even intimidated him. If so, good on me. [BGM: Last Dice]  Wordlessly, Milo walked past the tables and over to the door leading into the aforementioned Employee Area. Without looking back, I followed him in. As soon as we got there, I closed the door. Didn't want Yi or Zaochi seeing or hearing anything that was about to happen.  Milo just stood in the center of the room now. He couldn't look me in the eye. ...Well, visor. Get on your knees.Wordlessly, Milo complied. Ever since he saw us, fear and anger had been battling out within him. So far, anger has seemingly had the edge, but my last comment probably tipped the scales back in fear's favor. I took out the pistol I had brought with me. I was wise enough to bring it to an event like this: Duat business was armed business. Now then...What did I have to say to this man? What did I want to hear? ... Tell me. Why shouldn't I kill you?
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Nov 5, 2023 18:42
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