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Luxuria loving sucks. edit: worst snipe ever. update at the end of last page.
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Sep 9, 2021 15:44
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PlasticAutomaton posted:Okay so that incredibly stupid conversation aside, the ninth one got murdered right off the bat by Lux and Gula, that explains a bit. And it looks like the locks are getting the other people killed in votes? I think the locks are getting people's names - we got an unlock for Ira's name (Alex Seville) and for Lux's (Nico), but not when Vidi died as he didn't get a special name reveal.
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Sep 9, 2021 22:12
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I still wonder if that lock in the direct center of the vote section will actually be a secret fourth path (well, fifth, considering we have Ancora Dies, Vidi Dies, Lux Dies and Ira Dies) or if it's just a way to say "This is a Vote Segment".
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Sep 10, 2021 02:14
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Are there truly no good, likeable people amongst these criminals? I'm shocked.
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Sep 10, 2021 05:47
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Hey, Invidia hasn't done anything to make us hate him (yet) 
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Sep 10, 2021 15:37
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 BGM: Mestitior  What was... that all about? No longer on its solid two legs, it had fallen, limp against the surface of the floor below. Due to the state of the body, the survivors were looking at each other, unsure if Luxuria had truly passed on. That thought was eclipsed from everyone's mind when a sudden explosion completely obliterated the small one's head. Dust and smoke filled the air, giving the terrifying scene an even chillier atmosphere. In Luxuria's final moments in front of the shotgun, she had been thrashing about. The position of the body made it look more grotesque than it really was. From the neck was also a pool of red- a pool that none of the survivors dared approach. Droplets had splattered over the ground, remnants of the horrible blast. All of them were drying already, staining the floor with the ichor of life. Or the ichor of death. However, Ancora wasn't dealing with any of the sights. She was looking elsewhere. She was looking left, then right. She was in a state close to hyperventhilation. She had seen things she didn't recognize. She had heard a voice that couldn't have spoken. She was completely lost in her head, incapable of understanding what had transpired.  What... was that? What was that vision? A vision...? That wasn't a vision. It was real. Right? Don't touch me... I've seen her... I've heard her... I even know her real name! It's Nico! How... What's going on? What did you see? Something weird? I spoke to her! No, it wasn't me. It felt like it was me, but it wasn't me.She breathed in loudly, and then she calmed down. This was making her look like a freak. Ancora could see Superbia and Ira leaving the group to deal with whatever madness had taken her. I know you don't want to believe me, but there was something, maybe it's the helmet. It just came to me; when she died it's like we... connected? The girl felt like an abyss was growing in her stomach. The fact Invidia didn't trust her enough to believe her was eating at her. Perhaps we're going down a dangerous road by insisting on this vision. Maybe leaving it aside will be for the best.The only person in the group who remained close to the dead body was Gula. She was kneeling beside it, as if she was regretting the outcome in some fashion. That makes sense, as she and Luxuria had been close before. You aren't making any sense. And hey, Bia, Ira? Come back here, will you? We have to decide what we're doing now. We need some order in the group, or anarchy will reign. What we're doing...? Isn't it obvious? BGM: ME Mori ME wasn't done giving them instructions.  Greetings once more. I'm sure you'd rather not see ME again, not after the vote and your forced witness of a dead body. I would like to remind you that there will be 5 more in total today other than this one, so you should strap yourselves in. The carnage isn't over yet. Far from it. Fortunately for you, now you have an hour of respite. Please use your time well. We will be heading towards more of those education rooms now. If you'd remember the room you woke up in, they're a little like that. All the ME-cards are hidden further inside. Hopefully you didn't kill off your best puzzle solver yet, or else you would regret it now.The timer inside of Ancora's helmet read exactly four hours remaining. Once you've made your way inside, you will have to split up into three groups. You may be one, two, or three in a group. The very moment four people enter the same classroom, they will surrender their right to live. Each classroom has an assigned subject for you to study, and a question to answer. The subject and question will be given to you personally by me after 39 seconds have elapsed since the room's door has been opened, which is also when it will close and lock. Please remember that once you enter a room, you will also only have 39 minutes before you surrender your right to live! Time is of the essence, and I will stop taking it from you for now. From now on, I will only appear to give you each room's subject as you enter them. I wish all seven of you good luck, and don't forget... BGM: Mereo Mentis Then the image faded once more, and Ancora's vision was replaced with the real world again. She looked at Tristitia. He took an uneasy pose, no doubt thinking all that information over. Before Ancora could resume the topic, Gula and the others approached her, hounding her in Tristitia's stead.  All of Ancora's previous instability came back at once, hitting her like a truck. It's... I saw her, Lux- or Nico- I spoke to her, I spoke to Nico. I spoke to her, and she said she was dead. But it wasn't me. It was me, but it wasn't me.Superbia and Ira had come back at Tristitia's demand, both of them looking upon the wreck that Ancora had become.  What are you talking about? You aren't making any goddamn sense. I d-don't really get it either... But uh, s-shouldn't we get a move on and start making up teams like what ME said?Invidia agreed to that course of action, and so did Tristitia. Ancora was still almost hyperventilating, but by now the group was more focused on their own survival than her state of being. I saw her, I swear...  She can't come with all of us, actually. ME said we had to split up, but we can't bring more than three people in one room. I think if we're to explore three rooms again, then, we have to split 3-2-2... We can always m-make two groups of three, and one stays alone. Wouldn't that be quite sad for her, however? As much as I w-wanna be nice... It's not really my p-problem, to be honest. And as much as I'd want to agree with you, Ira, we do have to keep our teams balanced, because we have to get the ME-cards from inside. It would be stupid to send this insane bitch alone, just to have her unable to bring the ME-cards to us. Yeah, okay, s-sure. So let's m-make three teams of two, and we'll bring her w-with one of them, I guess. How are we going to determine that? I didn't say to bring her along, either. Isn't it just better to leave her out if she's going to be a problem? It's not like we all have to go in, right? It looked much like the other set when it was closed. A firm push proved she wasn't going to open them by any other way than the puzzle. It was, of course, what had been planned, so nothing out of the ordinary there. Next to the door, a panel was containing a square puzzle much like the one she previously solved. It wasn't the same puzzle, though. Obviously. A good way to prove them otherwise is to solve the puzzle. If that's done, then they'll have no choice but to realize no one's insane here.At least, that was the thought. Ancora stood in front of the two doors alone. With a sharp inhale, she looked at the panel and started solving it to open them.  BGM: Mens Metis  To be clear, this is the same door we open when Ira is the one to get voted on, the puzzle is just different... The solution for this one is...  The directive says M E, but there's no E on the board... The solution is to create an “M E”, or rather, an E that is made of Ms.  BGM: Meridianus The doors unlocked when Ancora finished solving the puzzle. Giving one of them a light push, she confirmed they could be opened and left their immediate area to head back to the six other survivors. The entire process had taken a few minutes, yet when she rejoined them, it didn't take long for her to understand the discussion about how to handle the teams still wasn't over.  Okay, that's fair I suppose. How do we divide, though? You and Bia are adamant about going together, but won't that be unbalanced...? It would be. We all need to have a team that has someone good at solving those rooms, which would be Vidi and me. Ula can't be that bad either if they escaped their room, too... Unless the one who was good was in fact the one who died, which then begs the question why they died at all. Though, Gula's been unresponsive for a while now anyway... We're g-going in a circle. You want me an' Bia to s-split? That's fine I guess. I opened the doors. The puzzle, that is- it's solved now. Ah, you're back. I noticed you'd left a little earlier.There was a definite change in Invidia's tone towards her. Not sure how much I can count him as an ally anymore. Maybe it's best to be wary. Yes, well, I thought it would be a good idea to do that while you all talked. It's not like you'd have given me a chance to explain myself. Or that you'd be willing to believe me without thinking I'm weird.Invidia scratched the back of his head a bit, as if he was embarrassed about his behavior towards her. Tristitia didn't put so much as a veil over his own beliefs.  Heh, w-whatever. What are the teams like in your head, oh great horse m-man? Maybe something like... First team would be Vidi and Ula, second would be myself and Bia, and the third would be you, Ava, and Cora. If you think I'm going to group with you... Yes, what if I think so? What if we do have to balance ourselves out this way so we actually all live? As if most of your common survival really matters. He didn't seem too pleased with her, but she just shrugged nonchalantly, as if it truly had nothing to do with her. Fine, then. You're right. Happy now? No, not really. I won't be happy until all this is over. Have we decided yet, then? I don't really have a preference one way or the other. As far as I'm concerned, I feel more like an observer than a real participant right now. Ah, right, sorry. I didn't really consult you when thinking those teams over.She dismissively waved in the air.  Feh, my time is not going to stop at all. It will if we don't hurry. We're close to ten past the hour. Let's go.The group was, for the major part, in agreement. Gula had remained almost completely silent since Luxuria had died. After a second or so, she decided to join them again, still mute to all attempts at conversation on the way. It was like she didn't really know what she was going to do anymore. As they set off towards the new set of doors, Ancora...  This choice does matter, since we have to start caring about TRUST again.  As such, we're going to walk with Ira this time.The lion was trying to ignore Ancora while she followed right behind Superbia and him. She couldn't blame him; no one really wanted to associate with her. D-do you want something in particular? Oh, no. I just thought, since we're going to group up, we should like... talk a little. That's okay by me. There are some easy topics, too. Hey, what are you two going on about? We're almost there, anyway. B-barely in the hallway, you mean. Whatever, just focus on getting there faster.The resulting silence wasn't allowed to go on for very long before someone else talked to Ancora, yet the girl was lost in thought already. BGM: Metis  Ancora didn't realize she was being addressed until Avaritia spoke again. Hey, anyone home?She snapped her fingers, which brought Ancora back to reality. Truth be told, she had been deep in thought too, much like Gula. Oh! Sorry, I was thinking about... things. Uh, the puzzle wasn't too bad, I guess. It only took me a few minutes... This kind of puzzle is nothing for someone like me. Maybe I could have done it even faster. Good to know, then. We have a good chance of making it out of our room after all. Hey, what does that mean? Do you also think I'm loopy? The group arrived at a small intersection in the hall. There was a tiny part leading further in, towards two doors much like the ones they'd gone through a moment ago, and a longer hallway gave way to a bend. This is where we split up, I think. There's a door ahead that can be opened for a classroom that most likely contains some ME-cards. Bia and I should head over there. Nobody made you the leader. If anything, that was my idea too. The earlier I'm in there, the earlier I can leave it.Deciding not to futilely argue against the rabbit, the horse waved at the rest of the group before trudging off towards the door. Superbia followed him without so much as the same courtesy. Faced with that, Ancora...  Nah, screw her. We're gonna just turn to the others. Ancora looked over at the group and she noticed Ira was a little distraught by this. He was holding his arms and looking out of place. It was probably due to Superbia's departure. Before she could talk to him, Invidia grabbed her shoulder. Hey, you okay? We have to keep moving; be thankful the others are allowing you to come with them still. Oh! Yeah, sorry. Let's go. Ira's not taking the separation from Superbia too well, huh? What's he even seeing in her anyway? So far he's been the one to cling to another person the most.The group was left to its own volition following all that.  Gula nodded her head in acknowledgement. Gee, this room is going to be fun, I can just tell...The sarcasm in his tone wasn't lost on Ancora. She wished she could say something to lighten up the mood, but everything she thought up didn't seem good enough. In the end, she remained silent, just like Gula. The larger group walked further down the hall. About midway, there were two doors leading to different classrooms. True to his word, Invidia pulled Gula over into the first of them, leaving the second to Ira, Ancora, and Avaritia. Can't say I'm a f-fan of locking myself up in one of those d-death cages again, but... Oh, stop complaining and go. Besides, you get to be with a cute girl and a mature woman. Yeah... those are probably the most d-dangerous things in there.Avaritia disregarded his pique and lazily walked into the classroom after opening the door. Ira followed her after shrugging at the remaining girl, who also followed after him. 
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Sep 11, 2021 16:54
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 BGM: Metis I'm glad we managed to reach an outcome without tearing each other's heads off for once... This place is really big. What does it mean to represent? And why is this in the school? I don't know. I t-think I know this place... but my head hurts when I t-think about it too much... Are we supposed to take the balcony too? Will we walk through here up there?After giving it a moment of consideration, and trying to move closer to have a better look at it, Ancora realized there was no going up there. There was a ceiling- it only appeared as though you could get to the second floor. I see, so it's not really like a second floor. It's an optical illusion! The ceiling is painted as if there was a second floor, but it doesn't really have one. That's k-kinda hosed up. BGM: ME Mori ME appeared upon their helmets, true to her word. Isn't this place just grand? It's really expensive to get a house to look like this. Not only is it expensive, but it's pretty much impossible unless you have more money than sense. But we're not here to figure that out; that has nothing to do with your immediate situation. There's a murderer in your group. Your task is to figure out who it is, and then tell me. I'm sure you can understand there is only one murderer, too. That's correct, none of the others have committed the crime of murder as of your incarceration, so please take that to heart and work together. Oh, right, for the answer... I'm not looking for a name. Instead, you'll be working to tell me which personality did the murder. If you aren't familiar with it, you'll find something that will help you delineate all of that in this duo of rooms. I'll see you later.BGM: Metis Once again, the vision of ME disappeared and light returned to their eyes, filtered through the cameras of the masks they wore. None of them seemed too pleased about the news that a killer was on the loose. 39 minutes c-countdown, huh... we're doing this again. Yes. We'd better get to searching... Even if I feel like this place is comfortable enough to take a nap inside. Take it once we're all done and we've left this horrible school. I'd personally like to get out as soon as possible now that it's confirmed one of us nine is a murderer... This room shouldn't be too bad either. The Enneagram of Personality reduces the amount of possibilities to nine, so working with that... Alright, not going to think about it too much. It's best left to the search. There's the enneagram somewhere in there, so as long as one finds it, they'll have a solid hold on the mystery. BGM: Mendosus  This time around, the topic of conversation we can bring up with our teammates is “the personality”, so we're gonna start by chatting with Avaritia. Feel free to talk. ME spoke about a personality. What do you think she means? Early on, when I studied psychology, we had this thing called the Enneagram of Personality which said that people can be categorized in nine main types of personalities. That's utter bullshit, by the way. That's because we're more complex than just one personality trait. It's believed we have a main type and two related types; when you're feeling fulfilled, and when you're feeling stressed. So do you remember the anagram? Enneagram. And no, I don't. I only remember that in the list, there's something called the “observer” personality, which is also “investigator”, and it's represented by the number 5.She took a small pause, thinking over what she was saying. Ancora was about to call for her again when she resumed her speech. I only remember because I think I might fit in that one. Do you think we all fit in those personalities? We were supposed to be nine... Not even as a template?Ancora insisted. She was fairly pumped about the subject, not willing to let go of a lead that they happened to have. Being interested is a good way to catch someone's attention. It's all about leading them into the right path. Maybe as a template. But I forgot what the personalities were anyway, so we'd better get going in order to find that in here, if it's in this room. We should probably keep searching. Yeah, let's go back to the search. Right away, then.Next up, Ira.  Do you know anything about that personality who might've done the murder? A-ah, no I don't think so. Sorry, I can't really h-help more than that.Strangely enough, his refusal didn't feel genuine to Ancora. She crossed her arms, which put him on his guard. Y-you asked me and I answered, so there's no problem! Right?He punched his hands together, looking as threatening as he could. Unfortunately, that only made Ancora more interested in knowing why he denied it so vehemently. You definitely know something. You wouldn't hit a girl, would you? So you're saying I should drop it before I get hurt. Y-yeah, that's what I'm saying. Again, I wish I could answer, but I'm not going to. You should just pretend I d-don't know anything. Well, at least that confirms he does know something about it. Maybe he did it... He doesn't seem to be too estranged to violence of some kind or another. Either way, regardless if he did it or not, working with him is crucial- especially if he did it. Wouldn't want him to become an enemy. Well, anything e-else? Never mind. Let's s-search more.Right, time to actually start poking around. If we examine the door we move to the other room, so we'll save that for later. For now, I'm gonna start by checking out the staircase in the center of the room.  T-this place is a bit... familiar. I can't put my finger on it.He smashed his fist into his palm, looking rather angry about that fact. It'll come back in due time. But in which way is it familiar? I think I've b-been here before... A large ornate mansion... r-rich place... Were you working there as a guard or something? D-don't be silly, I'm too young to have a j-job yet.The girl looked him up and down a little. Young? He's built like a brick wall. He became irate again at that idea. Averting her gaze, Ancora continued investigating the area in silence, but nothing came of the staircase itself. The painting on the landing wall has nothing of note to it- it can't even be moved or interacted with at all. There is an odd spot on one of the railing bannisters, though. Did you see this part? It looks awfully weird. It's like you can open it. You'll need a key for this. Ugh, what don't you need a key for in this place...?The teacher looked absolutely demoralized by having to find all of these keys. Ancora took a moment to reminisce about the first room she'd explored as there were a bunch of keys there, too. It's kinda overdone, but keys are the best way to lock people's progress.Ancora giggled a little. Avaritia signaled at Ancora with both her hands in annoyance.  Oh, nothing. I just thought of a dumb pun... Alright, then. But think less about puns, and think more about escaping this room. Okay, fine. Anyway, the lock on this one is silver, so I guess we have to find a silver key.Alright, guess we should look at the stuff on the ground floor. I'll start with the couch. A couch! I love couches. They're very comfortable. Let's see if this one measures up to the one I have at home. Oh, being nicely seated is just about the best thing in life.She rapidly rubbed her hands together, to the horror of Ancora who watched as the older woman descrated that piece of furniture by thoroughly using it in its intended way. Hmm... it's not actually that great. I guess it's better if you're not stressed out. I'd still give it an eight, though. Out of ten? She adjusted herself into the seat, before lying onto her side. Maybe an eight and a half. Then why not have a scale on twenty instead, so you can give it seventeen? Are you ridiculous? Scales go from zero to ten, or zero to a hundred. Won't that make it have eleven, or a hundred and one possible scores rather than a flat ten or hundred anyway? Why isn't it one to ten, or one to a hundred? I'm not the one who makes the rules.She nonchalantly shrugged. I'm more interested in seeing if there's anything around the sofa itself rather than its comfort level, to be honest.While Avaritia looked outraged that Ancora would dare suggest that, the girl knelt down, looking under the couch. I think... if I extend my hand... I need some light to see this... Guess I'll have to look at this again later... and you could've helped me a little, you know? The couch is far too comfortable for me to get down to the ground too. I mean, it's still at a level of eight and a half.Ancora stood back up, crossing her arms at Avaritia who shrugged back at her. Lazy bum.The lamp is broken and has nothing else of note if you try to examine it. Similarly, the table is, well, just a table. Nothing written on it, nothing under it, etc. That leaves just the fireplace and the painting atop the mantle. Unlike the other painting, this one can be moved.She pulled onto the sides to lift it slightly, curiously spying behind it. There was nothing but a wall. Yet, behind the painting itself were some words haphazardly scribbed across the surface.  Simple enough. Why does it say three, though? Is it the order to put in the directives or something? I don't think so. This sounds like the very final step to do since it mentions “free space”.As for the fireplace... This is giving off a lot of heat. Is that s-so? It doesn't look that hot to me...He reached towards the fire, but the teacher grabbed his arm. Hey, don't burn yourself. We need a way to extinguish the fire if we're going to look into there, first. Which isn't necessarily water, either. You need to asphyxiate the fire to extinguish it. It wasn't that hot! And besides, look, I got this. It's a silver key! Where there's a silver key there must be a silver lock. L-looks more like steel to me. But yeah, a key, that's good, r-right?They all decided it was, indeed, a good thing when they added the key to their inventory. It's obvious what the key is for, but before we use it let's check out the other room. The door isn't locked or anything, so we can just wander in anytime we wanted.  Obviously the door takes us back to the entryway. I'm going to start by examining the broken columns. This area looks really weird. It's like a very lustrate sort of place... white and gold and all. Look at this pillar! That sounds like a good finding. Let's remember that. Do you have a pen and paper? No. I don't think there's any of that here. But it's okay, I have a good memory, don't worry.Reassured, Ancora left the pillar alone. This place looks extremely rich. This is the kind of thing you'd find in some fantasy holy place or something. Still, it only looks rich, but it isn't. I mean, this isn't the real place it's referencing, of course. This is just a replica.The other pillars have nothing else for us, so next we'll check out the altar in the center of the room.  This isn't a holy tomb. And besides, this cloth is hiding something underneath it.She swiped it, looking upon the naked altar- or at least, it's what she expected; the piece of cloth hid another underneath it. There was a strange, retractable pole between the two layers, though. T-that might come in handy to get a longer reach. It doesn't have a hand. But it might come in handy anyway. Is that a-another pun?The girl didn't reply, instead getting a hold of the pole to free up the altar. She was about to replace the cloth, when she realized there was more to it.  That sounds like one of t-those personality type things. Yeah, probably. We'll keep the cloth, then. B-but the holy tomb... It's not a holy tomb! It's just... white everywhere, and it has nothing to do with a tomb. Next is the throne. I'm strong enough to p-push even this!He helped lift the large, imposing, and very heavy throne up, exposing the plates underneath. At first it had just been an exercise in showing off his strength, but a few words were written underneath it.  I'm a genius? I mean, y-yeah, of course I am! I knew it all a-along.After Ancora was done reading it, Ira let go of the throne, which slammed back onto the ground in its rightful place. The last thing we can examine in this room is those boxes off to the side. A bunch of boxes... it'll take a while to search them all. But there's something behind them. It's a flashlight. Might be helpful if we somehow need something illuminated.She snagged it from Ancora, who held her hips in annoyance. I'll just put it with the rest of the stuff! You can take your time searching the crates if you want. You just want to get away so you don't have to search with us. J-just stick around a bit. It won't take too long if we're all three.Avaritia admitted defeat. The lazy teacher settled down with the two others, opening boxes and looking through their contents. There wasn't much; a lot of foam, mainly. Some of them had a few items, but nothing worthy of note.  The book has the Enneagram on it! But all the spots aren't named. There are the numbers for each of the spots, though. I remember this. Observer is at the number five spot, I know that much. We can probably start things off with that. And the book itself... it doesn't open. It's fake. Hahaha, we f-found something but it's not real. Maybe it's not real, but there's a phrase on the back anyway. It says... “Find me where the beginning of all six tell you.” Very important stuff. Let's go put our stuff together instead.If we examine the boxes one more time... Nothing else seems useful here. It's full of weird... ceremony stuff. Black and red robes mostly... I don't think this place is Christian. I'm sure that means nothing. Anyway, that's all we have to look at in this room, so now we can return to the entryway. Firstly, let's use that key we found at the fireplace in the weird slot on the stairs bannister. The silver key we found looks like it fits in here. It looks more like a steel key than a silver key to me...Regardless of what the key really was made out of, it fit into the lock. Opening the object dropped a rolled piece of paper onto the ground. Unfortunately, due to its placement, it fell behind the couch. drat! We'll have to get it. I'm on it. She grabbed the piece of paper and Ira replaced the couch where it had been. I was being careful because couches are precious things that mustn't be harmed at all costs, but I suppose this works too... There are b-better ways to be grateful for help, I'd say. You get to see what we found. On this paper is written... “TWO. Peacemaker, Achiever, and Loyalist form a perfect triangle.” What the heck are t-those? If I had to guess, they're personality types. Let's store this in our communal inventory. Next, now that we have the flashlight, we can see what's written on the underside of the couch. Oh yeah! I can finally use that light to see what's written there.She crouched again, illuminating the underside of the couch.  She gave a glance at Ira who stood nearby. You're strong, you could have helped me move the couch up and over! I can move the couch away, but I can't l-lift it. I don't know why. Maybe its m-magnetized to the ground?Ancora shook her head, disappointed. With this, we have all six clues, and thus can begin solving the puzzle. To initiate this all you have to do is try to combine any two of the six clues in the inventory. Hey, we need to think about where the safe is. M-maybe it's not a safe in this room? But whatever it is, we have to find it... All those instructions we found might help us. Isn't it weird how they're labeled with an order, but the one with “First” isn't first? There has to be something we can capitalize on with these six hints. If in doubt, let's look at them again. This isn't the actual answer to the room, obviously, but I'm still going to spoiler the solution if you want to puzzle it out yourself. The book says “Find me where the beginning of all six tell you”- in other worse, look at the first letter of each clue. We get 'UPFIRE', which is what we are intended to answer with... The beginning of the instructions spell “UPFIRE.” I think we have to look up the chimney to find whatever it is. We'd just f-find Santa Claus there. It's not Christmas yet. And even if it was, Santa Claus doesn't go down chimneys where there's smoke. Speaking of which, where is that smoke going? M-maybe it's staying in this room and we're slowly d-dying... But there's probably some kind of b-buffer room for it where it gets filtered. It's called ventilation. Anyway, I think someone could extinguish the fire using a large piece of cloth. It might go better than water since, well, there's no water here.How convenient that we have one of those Technically I think you can try to figure out where the safe is the moment you have any two of the clues, which is why the actual act of using the cloth is separate, but it's still very funny. The cloth we found can be used to stop the fire. Just do it like this... And now we can look i-inside!He arched his back and peeked up the dirty chimney. As he came back to them, the two girls could easily see, even without directly witnessing his face, that he was disappointed. T-there's something, but it's really high and I can't r-reach it. You'd need like a... billiard pole or something to get it down. That's one difficult item to get to, huh? Too bad it's also practically necessary. Good thing we actually found that. Alright, I'll use the pole now!Ancora took out the retractable pole she had on her and expanded it, while looking up the chimney. The girl coughed a little; even the helmet didn't stop all the leftover dust, ashes and smoke there still was. Ira took that better earlier. Save the couch! Don't let it get tainted by the ashes!Thankfully, the ashes never got to it. The group grabbed the item; it was a small chest which had been held in suspension. It didn't have a lock, so Ira opened it with glee, uncaring that his hands dirtied themselves with soot.   He immediately grabbed it.  It's so cool! I've n-never held a gun in my life. I mean, I don't actually l-like violence, but this is still cool. Guns are cool. Yes, that's fine but, uh, do you mind not waving that thing around? I-it's okay, the safety's still on or however t-that thing works. Was there anything else in the box? O-oh, right, there's also a key... Goes r-right with the others we found like that, huh...He also pulled out one of those magnetic keycards, and then another one. He pocketed one of the ME-cards while Ancora took the other, and Avaritia snagged the strange key. See? No danger. We're all splitting it equally. You didn't split the gun, though. I-I'm just gonna keep that one. I h-hope you don't mind. If you do, well, that's too bad.The two girls watched him for a moment before they decided he wasn't really a threat... for now, at least. They still needed him to leave the room, and that “they” included him, too.  It says... “The answer is lower than Individualist.” Another riddle? drat. I think we have all we need to escape though. So... how about meeting back here at the fireplace when we're ready to go? Let's not take too long... the t-timer's going down... I agree. I agree too. Maybe it would be good to have just one more cursory look first, but not too much. But we don't need to do that, we've already looked at everything. Are we all ready? S-sure. But do you, uh, know the answer? I don't know. There's a riddle, and it's super confusing to me. W-what would stop someone from guessing which one it is and eventually getting it right? T-there are only nine possibilities, no? How many of us are in this room? Do you count ten? D-drat, you're right. W-What about me?! Do you want to figure it out? Be my guest if so.The boy went silent at the question. He apparently didn't want to. Good. He won't get in the way and confuse everyone else with his stupidity. BGM: Memini Meminisse  Yes. It's supposedly your personality, and Reformer is easy since one of the pieces of paper mentions it “starts the ball”. Things get a little more complicated after the first one, but... Another paper says that Enthusiast and Challenger are related to Observer. We can probably lock Enthusiast and Challenger to either 7 or 8, then. Wait, why? Couldn't they be 4 or 6, too? They're linked together. There are two specific kinds of words used in these hints. There's “next to” and “related to”, and I'm willing to bet the latter refers to the lines in the middle, not the outside. Makes sense. The funny number... Ancora, please pay attention in class. Yes, ma'am. Um, wait, it also mentions something about Enthusiast being related to Reformer? That's right. With this, we can determine where Loyalist, Enthusiast, and Challenger are. Since Loyalist is next to Enthusiast, Enthusiast is related to Reformer, and Enthusiast and Challenger can only be on 7 or 8, the lineup is... That's right, we're still expected to actually solve part of this puzzle ourselves When the game first released, this conversation wasn't actually here, and you were instead just expected to use the clues and figure out where each of the nine personalities lies on the circle all by yourself (or, you know, just Google it ). Because of this, in a later patch the creator rewrote this section entirely so there was still something worth reading even if you just looked up the answer. Speaking of: Enthusiast must be 7 then. Since it's 7, Loyalist can't be 8 because that's definitely Challenger... so Loyalist is 6. Even bigger than the girth of Ira's arms? Even bigger than that. It says that Peacemaker, Loyalist, and Achiever form a perfect triangle, but we only have one of them. We can't determine these yet... No, that's incorrect. We can determine all of them right now. How do you figure that one out? Well, see, Individualist and Achiever form a pair. And that means... Achiever can't be 9 then, because there's only one spot! Wow, this is getting really filled in now.Ira was looking at them both with impatience. He had taken the gun out again, and was playing with it. The fact she and Avaritia were carrying him through the room, but he was the one who got the firearm, made Ancora a little upset. There's just no fairness in this world. It's hard to determine where Individualist and Helper are. However, there's a big clue in the final paper we got. It says, “The answer is lower than Individualist.” That means Individualist's position will determine which one it is... ...so it's got to be 2! That's the only way to get only one possible answer! I don't think that's correct. It wouldn't make any sense to not have us figure out the whole thing first, which means... You think Individualist is on 4 and Helper is on 2? Wait, h-hold up, save that for when we have to answer the door. Alright, fine, then. Are you sure this is the answer, Ava? Very sure. Do you want me to give the answer this time, to be clear on how sure I am? No, it's fine, I'll do it. Are we all ready?BGM: Mendosus  Hmm, I felt kind of useless in this one. Oh well, won't complain about getting a break for once. Alright, let ME out! The answer is...  Helper!With a loud click, the door unlocked. BGM: Metis A-alright, good! Let's get out of here now... After you.*click*  Seeing that he took the gun out, Ancora and Avaritia begrudgingly obeyed, walking out of the door first. They didn't really have a choice anyway; even without the gun, Ira would still be stronger than the both of them combined. 
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Sep 13, 2021 20:53
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Why do I have the horrible sinking feeling that Ira's gonna use the gun against Bia?
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Sep 13, 2021 21:07
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Junpei posted:Why do I have the horrible sinking feeling that Ira's gonna use the gun against Bia? Especially since if he does kill Bia but doesn't go full mass murder, we've got a ready-made justification to having everybody vote for him next time. MagusofStars fucked around with this message at 03:59 on Sep 14, 2021 |
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Sep 14, 2021 03:56
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According to Wikipedia, the sin most associated with the helper personality is pride, meaning it was probably superbia. If you consider the stressed and security aspects, it could also be referring to the individualist (envy, invidia) or challenger (lust, Luxuria). All of those seem like pretty good candidates to me.
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Sep 14, 2021 13:14
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 content warning: more being weird/gross about Gula's body, ugh BGM: Metis And now, we're back out. With the window obstructed by that metal plate, she couldn't see inside to make sure everyone made it out. As the hallways were completely silent other than for her and Avaritia following her, she figured no one else had solved their room yet. Look, I'm not g-going to do anything bad, okay? It's j-just like I said. I don't want any of you to f-fuckin' kill me like that...There was some truth to his words; the more Ancora watched him carrying the gun, the more she realized he really didn't know how to use it, which would only be helpful to her. It wouldn't be too hard to try and get it from him... But let's not forget he's also pretty built. He can defend himself even without the gun.For now, Ancora decided to not think about a violent outcome and instead focused her thoughts on what they learned in the room. Someone in the group was a real threat, and it wasn't Ira. It would be best to get the others to follow the same train of thought, but how do we guide them there? Avaritia calmly shrugged, not even deigning to open her mouth to say a single word. However, Ira had a much more... irate reaction. Just... d-don't question it, okay? It's n-not me, but whoever it is, if they learn we know, you can b-bet we're going to be meeting the b-bearded guy in the sky soon after.He pointed upwards as he spoke. There i-isn't any way they let us go after that. I'm not really s-smart but even I can understand it's dangerous, so keep s-shut if you know what's good for you. Which means it's best to bring up during the next vote. That will help solve this issue. However, maybe I should make sure I'm right on who it is first with another session of hacking. Maybe now's not the best time, but soon enough. This had for effect to stop Gula dead in her tracks, but not before she bumped into Invidia, causing him to fall forward to the ground.  You, uh, wanna try that one again, game? Ouch! Hey, please watch it next time... Oh, my apologies. It was not under my assumption you would be ceasing all movements this readily.Now that she was out and she could see it, Gula cautiously watched the gun hanging from the lion's hand.  Ugh, unh...Invidia was still in the process of standing up. No one gave him a hand, so Ancora stepped forward to help him. He shook his head in protest. I'll be fine, it's okay. I was just bumped by not just a single body but the entire gravitational force of two celestial bodies... stop iiiiit Hey, that is completely uncalled for! Avert your gaze and your uncouth thoughts from my chest this instant.Gula clenched her hands into fists, looking downright aggravated by his joke. Thankfully for her, the party got in full swing when the third door unlocked in the distance and Tristitia's helmet popped in from around the corner. Oh, you're all... Will you guys stop? It's j-just a gun! I'm not g-going to shoot anyone. Nobody's got to be scared of this, okay? What do you mean, “just a gun”? That kind of thing is highly dangerous. Ugh, what's the matter now? Someone's got a gun?The rabbit girl came in after the horse. She evaluated the situation from Invidia dusting off his hands now that he was back on his feet, to the group somewhat awkwardly waiting to see how things would go, and finally to Ira who still had the gun in his hand. Simple, then. You just take it apart. Look, do you want everyone to stop getting scared over it or not? I thought I heard something about that just now. Just open the gun. I... I don't k-know how to do that, okay? Then let me do it.Ancora could tell that Ira really didn't want to let go of the gun. But after a moment, he absconded from that position and let the rabbit have it. It's really easy. To empty the gun, there are two ways. One is to open it like this. Now nobody will be able to shoot with it. The revolver, without bullets, is useless unless you want to clock someone with it. Got it? Simple enough, like I said.She handed the now empty revolver over to Ira, who took it back. He put it in his pocket, now that the danger of holding it was past. It was like a weight had been lifted off the group. At least, until Tristitia panicked. Oh no, we're running late! The hour's coming to a close soon. We've got ten minutes before the time for the vote is over.BGM: Membrana Let's just vote, then. We've got all this time to do it, and on top of that we already found two ME-cards in our room. We found two ME-cards, too. I guess we all found two? So that's six... Ah, d-dammit. It could've gone smoothly, but we have to search for m-more again? We already searched this whole place and d-didn't find any earlier! Let us away towards a second thorough search. Perhaps we'd not given it due concern prior. “Perhaps we'd not given it due concern prior.” Bitch, please, talk normal. I swear, you gotta drop the thesaurus. You're saying I'm a slut, bitch? Look at you again and say it once more. That is what you precisely are. A highly uncouth one, completely undeserving of my attention, mind you. With your looks, its no wonder your mind jumps to that. Just by looking at you I can tell you've had more dongs than the bell of an old church. What a laugh! Have we witnesed the singular moment in which your only duet of cephalic cells has formulated a sentence composed of more than the word “bitch”? I don't give a gently caress about what you think my head composes. But if you don't stop bitching at me, your head is gonna start decomposing instead. Girls, stop f-fighting, we've got to- And furthermore, you've been a pain ever since you first arrived with your little friend who was voted out! Of your starting group, you're the last one. I wouldn't tempt fate if I was you, because your group's dropping like flies right now... But they didn't listen. Even through the boys' attempts at bringing the two of them back from their bickering, they simply continued. Pray tell then, incapable rabbit, what do you propose to solve our timely dilemma? Should you continue this line, we'll all duly surrender our right to live. This is going to degenerate. Something has to be done, and fast, or else...Before anyone could do anything, least of all Ancora, Superbia grabbed the revolver from Ira's pants. Whether or not he'd wanted to stop her, he was too surprised to move. With a kick of her shoe, she grabbed a bullet and slammed it into the chamber lightning-fast.  BGM: Mestitior The bang that echoed was telltale of what just transpired. A bullet hole had gone right through Gula's chest, who promptly fell down, hitting her head hard on the wall. Y-you're... murderer... You're the one going... to hell...The helmet she wore activated, and the resulting explosion kicked up tons of dust and smoke. By the time it dissipated, the body was headless. Yet, the wall behind her barely suffered any damage. And this is the second way to empty the gun. You can thank me later for saving your lives, since we won't need a vote for this hour slice.Superbia threw the now empty gun away, and walked off before anyone said anything. Everyone was too surprised and frozen in shock to do anything of the sort, anyway. Ancora grabbed the gun while no one else moved. While she was doing it, she had a thought for Gula, and her head turned to look at the body which was now a mess on the floor. A mess that was getting redder by the moment.  Ugh... s-sick... I'm going to be sick.He walked away from the others, not content remaining near the dead body. BGM: Metis I should have stepped in. Maybe I could have prevented it. Don't blame yourself over it. I guess... something like that was inevitable. Now what? What about the vote? We've got another hour to think about it. But maybe... there's another way. It's like ME said. The votes aren't necessary. As much as everyone hated to admit it, all the survivors felt similarly. Gula dying was an unwanted outcome, but it meant they wouldn't die for the next hour. And yet, they were still trapped in this section until they voted again. For some of them, it also gave them a clear target to eliminate next. Not that any of them really were as close to Gula as to wish for revenge, but Superbia's threat was made manifest. Let's split up and gather our thoughts.The group agreed, and everyone set out in a different direction. Ancora left them first, splitting from the rest to check around the corner further south past the room she explored with Avaritia and Ira. Maybe now would be a good idea to hack. Let's see... Matching frequencies are Tristitia, Superbia, and Ira. I'm very curious to see what Superbia is up to, but... I've got choices, it seems. For now, I'll be hacking... This time, we're going to be hacking Ira.  BGM: Mens Metis  Even though we could hack Ira in the first group (and did so, in a different file), the puzzle is different this time since the frequencies are different. As for the solution this time...  When the directive says “equalize” what it really means is both sides of the equation need to have the same numerical value. If we translate the letters into their numerical counterparts (as in A=1, B=2, C=3, etc) and then add all of the numbers up, we get a total of 102- therefore, each side needs to add up to 51. Additionally, each side has to be listed in numerical order (though since I and 9 are the same you can put these two in any order).  BGM: Medius  Seems Ira went off somewhere without Avaritia, and he just came back to her. Since he doesn't have the key, he couldn't get into the corner room, anyway. I t-thought I saw a ME-card, but it was just my imagination. It's not l-like we really need to find more right now though, r-right?Avaritia went over to where Ira came from and knelt besides Gula's dead body. I guess not. She has a card and a few keys on her, but we still need to gather a sufficient number of cards for later, anyway. More can't hurt.The teacher held them out. Clear as day, there was a ME-card in the palm of her hand, and in the other, two keys. Their teeth appeared to form the letters I and G, respectively. That's a lot of keys you g-got now. Four, right? Oh, uh. I g-guess. Don't know what they're for or a-anything... Just take both. I already have two keys, so I may as well spread them around.Ira took them both, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly at the motion. He clearly wasn't used to saying thanks, or just being polite in general. BGM: Metis The two of them remained silent for a few seconds. Both of them were looking at the dead body, as though both of them wanted to talk about it, but also wanted to avoid doing it. So uh, about U-Ula... You know what we're going to do next, right? Yeah. So I was thinking, m-maybe... just don't. Don't what? Maybe she shouldn't say them then, if she truly doesn't mean what she's saying. Listen, no, I m-mean, uh. I don't know if I should be m-mentioning this to anybody, but like... her family's kinda f-hosed up. They're rich, right? They're k-kinda loopy. They have this whole... indoctrination thing. I'm talkin' d-drugs and stuff like that. I don't mean drugs like... crack or weed. Stuff that is apparently supposed to control your flow of t-thought and connect you to God or some bullshit like that. Look, I don't think that even w-works, but yeah. Her family's rich, and the're doing k-kinda shady poo poo, but they don't exactly hide it. It's like they... indoctrinated t-themselves into doing it. And that makes her a better person. Yeah, well, I just k-kinda want her to get out of it. Snap out and realize she's not G-God or a prophet or better than anybody. How do you know all this? Uh... I honestly don't know. Memory c-came back a bit earlier, with the room we explored. There was... a mansion lobby that was the s-same as her family's mansion. And then a large, ornate room. I slipped them to p-people at school. I guess that's my crime. I see. Well, I'll keep that in mind. All of that.She gave a nod towards him, but she was clearly looking off to the side. Ira turned around, seeing Tristitia coming by. Hey, you two. We're going to gather to vote. Seen Ancora? Oh uh, yeah, s-she's over there around the corner I think.He pointed towards the hall, past Gula's body. Tristitia thanked him and walked further in the direction of Ancora's hiding spot. I gotta do this fast, or else I'm not going to be “there” when he comes around. There were no sounds or any visuals to be heard or seen respectively, while it should have been showing everything from her helmet's point of view once more. Something's wrong. This can only happen if someone forcibly knocks it offline. That means someone bashed the helmet and caused the resonance effect strongly enough. Why did I not feel any of it?Eventually, the helmet rebooted. Ancora's vision became filled with Tristitia holding her to help her back onto her feet. Was it... him? Could it be that he closed the distance this quickly and knocked out the helmet in the time it was taking me to have the connection back? Ancora harbored this strange feeling that perhaps it had been his fault. She acted surprised when he was holding her, only to pull away from him after a few seconds. I'm fine, don't worry over me. Hey, wait up! We have to meet with the group. I'm going there, it's fine!Shrugging off the light dizziness she was feeling as a result of the altercation, Ancora put as much distance between them as she could, making a beeline for the voting consoles. Surely they would all gather to do the vote soon; it was twenty minutes past the hour, so they still had forty minutes, but there was nothing to do until then except vote. I can't shake this feeling that someone did something I wasn't aware of during this part. Something's... missing. Feels like... running into a wall, headfirst, with your eyes closed. Not good. Why are they still in this wing? The only explanation for Avaritia... she's taken the ME-card that belonged to Gula. But Ira doesn't have anything to do here. And there was Ira's speech in the room we'd just explored, too. It gives them a whole new meaning... and it means we can't trust Superbia.Ancora hesitated as those thoughts went through her head. There was an even bigger problem at hand, and there was no way to deduce it given the puzzle piece of information she had. The bigger problem is... who knocked me offline? All of these details will have to be shared for the vote. It's probably safer to talk about it when they're physically incapable of movement in front of the shotguns.BGM: Medius  Oh, there you are. Trist and me were looking everywhere for you. You mean Trist and I. No, it was me, not you. I mean what I said. I'm just saying it's incorrect to say “them and me” like that... Besides, you could just say “we”. Yeah, I know. I'm heading there. …The conversation came to a bit of a standstill. Invidia was clearly hesitating. The exact nature of the reason behind that hesitation was lost on Ancora. Was it because of her loopy episode earlier? If she wanted to get anything out of him, she'd have to take the first step. But what would he answer...?Ancora knew what she wanted to talk about. Without much hesitation on her end, she spoke, forthcoming about her incident. Someone assaulted me. I didn't see who it was. I was struck from behind. I passed out for a few minutes not long ago. It's probably this helmet that caused me to lose consciousness. You know, how Bia accidentally hit the ear of her helmet on the doorframe earlier and she screamed bloody murder? Imagine that but from a direct hit. I wasn't around back there, so I can't say who attacked you. Do you have any suspects?He was more open to talk about it now. That act, out of concern for her, calmed Ancora. You came out of the first hallway, so it sounds like it wasn't you. Trist found me and helped me back up, so maybe it was him. I can't rule out that possibility... Otherwise, Ira and Ava were both in Wing A too. Then there's Bia... Oh, it can't be Bia. She's been around here this whole time as far as I'm aware. But you went into the hallway, didn't you? You might've missed her slipping by you... Ancora couldn't be sure now. Superbia definitely could have a hand in doing something bad, but if Tristitia didn't run into her... Okay, let's eliminate Superbia from the suspects, then. That would be great, yes.They had been so engrossed in their talk that they didn't notice the bunny girl coming by. She walked down the stairs to join them with a slightly irate tone. Are we going to vote now? Look, time's ticking and we've not reached the next set of rooms yet. Three already died, so you've got a 50% chance of coming out of it alive, too. Something's not quite right. Generally speaking, Superbia is a giant bitch, fine. But she's very forthcoming now. I mean, more than usual. She's definitely up to something.Superbia shook her head and clicked her tongue, annoyed. Just come up here. It's not magic; it's just a few stairs.Looking behind herself, Ancora noticed the rest of the group closing in. She decided to walk up the stairs before they caught up with the trio already in the Crossroads.  BGM: Mercedis Mellitus  This is where it would be best to point out the discrepancy of events. However, I'm kind of at a loss. Nothing really connects or makes sense. Superbia's suspicious. Maybe that's a good spot to start with.But before Ancora could say anything about Superbia, the group was already done with their deliberating. It had been lightning fast. The only one who wasn't in agreement to vote with Superbia was... to no one's surprise, herself. Superbia was surprisingly not putting much of a fight, though. She did look fairly annoyed, but it was nothing on the level one would expect out of her in this situation. This is stupid and dumb, and you're all stupid and dumb. Those mean the same thing. Either way, she's too dangerous to leave alive. We're all in agreement, right? I guess there's not much more to say about it. Then what? What are you going to do? Ava, Cora, Vidi and I are all going to vote for Bia. Surely, you can tell voting otherweise is futile? I guess you're right. Fine, then. Sorry, Bia, but they're right.Bia didn't say anything. Something is definitely wrong with this. Normally, she would've been out of her mind at the mere mention of killing her. But is it too late to do anything about it? She voted for herself too...? Oh no, this is bad. We just got played, didn't we? God, you're all so loving dumb. I wasn't saying anything because I couldn't have held my laughter if I did!BGM: Mestitior The screens exposed the votes much like before. What happened was surprising... Even though everyone seemingly voted for Superbia, Ancora was the one with six votes. What...? Bia, did you...Ancora stared in bewilderment at the results. It was the final thing she would stare at.  She only had time to hear the first part of the explosion before she was truly ended, her head engulfed in a torrent of heat and destruction. I guess that's what one gets for being blind to what's happening. It would've gone differently if I'd known something else most likely. Or maybe it was some misplaced trust. Whatever the reason is, it's too late now to ponder on it, but it's still disappointing. At least I'll have pretty much all of eternity before me.   
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Sep 15, 2021 17:27
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...Well, we got dead again.
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Sep 15, 2021 17:36
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I can forgive Gula's obnoxious use of language just for that "Salacious Jezebel" insult.
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Sep 15, 2021 18:25
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Hmm. Rewiring the buttons seems likely. Sometimes the simplest tricks are the best.
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Sep 15, 2021 18:29
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Is Bia or Trist the locked frequency this time?
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Sep 15, 2021 18:33
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You'll find out next update
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Sep 15, 2021 18:37
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Tylana posted:Hmm. Rewiring the buttons seems likely. Sometimes the simplest tricks are the best.
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Sep 16, 2021 12:12
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That sounds like a good trick, but the narration made it sound like the display came up as 6 votes for Ancora. Also do we know how the machine knows who stands where? Are there specified places, or does it read the helmet? I'd go back and check if it says but effort.
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Sep 16, 2021 12:31
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Tylana posted:Also do we know how the machine knows who stands where? Are there specified places, or does it read the helmet? I'd go back and check if it says but effort. If you look at the machine before everyone's standing there, you can see that the place where the helmet locks into place has each person's specific symbol- they have to stand at the same stand each time because it'll only lock in to their specific helmet Before the cylinder lowered, there was a nameplate on it showing where each person's place was.
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Sep 16, 2021 15:38
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Ah good to know. So can't just swap signs either. Or at least, if you can that's a unreliable narrator twist (which are fine when done well.)
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Sep 16, 2021 15:50
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So superbia must have hosed around with the wiring of the shotguns. If someone can just manually set who gets executed based on certain votes, that makes pretty much any vote from now on a crapshoot where anyone can die. I’m guessing there’s another timeline where everyone votes for someone and someone else (not Cora this time)dies. Bonus points if the person who was voted for was not the one who switched the wires. Everyone was already trying to kill the voted for person and suspicion will immediately fall on the initial target if someone else is killed by the shotgun, meaning the wire switcher can doom two people at once. E: another thought- why doesn’t Cora have a backup plan? Why does her helmet actually work? If she was actually in control she could have had a failsafe where if she was voted for it just immediately kills everyone else. I get she only wants to kill the traitor, but killing everyone will definitely get the traitor too. As it stands right now it’s just as likely that she dies and the traitor lives. Insertnamehere31 fucked around with this message at 16:36 on Sep 16, 2021 |
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Sep 16, 2021 16:32
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Honestly my assumption from tropes and such, is this is all a plan on the part of the programmer who set it up all the tech, possibly subverting Ancora's original plan or request. Ancora's thoughts and motivations might be true, but they are not going to be complete. Because changing context feels good to readers brains. Plus of course, the chances of us dealing with androids again. Or something really weird like having stolen brain scans from people and trying to work out which is the traitor in something close to a simulation. An earlier thought was that actually a lot of the stuff is fake just show on the helmet display, but people's interactions with scenery and corpses and each other make that seem unlikely (though still might hide some key factors. No-one has gone around dragging their hands over walls. You don't open doors you don't know are there, etc.)
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Sep 16, 2021 18:05
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The other thing that has popped out at me is at every death where we talk to the uh, consciousness? I guess. So far, every one of those consciousness has thought they might be Marco first, before the person they're talking to tells them their name.I'm beginning to wonder if they're talking to Cora, or Cora can just hear the conversation, and if some point one of these deaths we'll have that conversation with Cora too. But that could also be overthinking it. This has been a fun and wacky ride to read through so far.
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Sep 16, 2021 18:36
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I swear to god if we turn out to be parts of the same person I am going to lose my poo poo. Help a stupid person: why was the answer 'Helper' to the earlier room? I feel like they missed the last step of the logic puzzle.
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Sep 16, 2021 23:07
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Explosions posted:Help a stupid person: why was the answer 'Helper' to the earlier room? I feel like they missed the last step of the logic puzzle. Avaritia's logic is that the clues are set up in a way that forces you to figure out every single personality spot in order to figure out what the correct personality is- the last one you enter in- which, if you take all the pre-existing information, leaves the last two spots where either Individualist or Helper should go. Because 'Helper is lower than Individualist', it's the "last" one you figure out, and therefore is the answer. This would be a stretch, but sound enough logic... if it wasnt completely predicated on Avaritia being in the room and telling us what slot the Observer goes in.  The real answer is when the creator added this conversation of Avaritia and Ancora working through the puzzle together he also changed the clues to accommodate her being directly involved but didn't realize that he broke the logic of the puzzle by doing so The clues are all different, but the way of finding the answer, 'its the last one you put in', is still the same... so I don't even know why bother changing the clues up completely.
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Sep 17, 2021 00:04
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Insertnamehere31 posted:
Cora doesn't seem to be the most competent mastermind out there.
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Sep 17, 2021 01:55
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 So, clearly something happened that we weren't prepared for. We're going to be staying on the bottom half again this run, but we're going to have to make some different decisions at some point to avoid the same outcome. Also, now that we're starting to get deeper into the flowchart, in the interest of brevity, I am going to assume by now you have a pretty good grasp on all the possibilities of the first part of the flowchart, so instead I'm going to quickly summarize the choices we've made but skip past a lot of the details, at least through the first vote. Starting from the beginning of the flowchart: Ancora 'wakes up' in the classroom, and after introducing herself, decides to introduce herself to Superbia. After they solve the puzzle and leave the classroom, they run into Ira, Avaritia, and Tristitia, and Ancora approaches Avaritia first. Luxuria and Gula exit their room without the ninth person. ME explains some more of the rules, and after she's done, Ancora talks to Luxuria first. The group make their way into what was known as the Crossroads when the school was open, and in the process Superbia hits her helmet on the doorframe and is incapacitated. Ancora takes this opportunity to speak to Luxuria some more. The group split up to search for more ME-cards so they can initiate the first voting session, and this gives Ancora the opportunity to hack into another person's helmet; she decides to hack Luxuria's helmet. This is how she learns that Luxuria and Gula had a direct hand in the death of the ninth person, as well as that Luxuria intentionally left a ME-card hidden in one of the side classrooms. She uses this information to her advantage by turning the group's focus off of her and onto the other suspicious people, but in the process accidentally reveals information she couldn't have known. However, in the process, Luxuria drops the mask enough that the group decides to vote for them anyway, leading to Luxuria being executed. At this point, Ancora seems to react to a vision of some kind, leading the group to write her strange behavior off as her being mentally unstable and, in turn, unreliable; however, after she leaves and solves the puzzle to lead to the next area by herself, they decide to still allow her to come with them to the next puzzle rooms... BGM: Meridianus The group was, for the major part, in agreement. Gula had remained almost completely silent since Luxuria had died. After a second or so, she decided to join them again, still mute to all attempts at conversation on the way. It was like she didn't really know what she was going to do anymore. As they set off towards the new set of doors, Ancora...  This time, we're going to walk with Gula. Despite her best efforts, the cow girl remained completely mute. Ancora chose to walk in silence with her, regardless. The others were all too content to let the two of them follow along without raising their voices. Still, despite the lack of communication, Ancora felt a bit of kinship with her. They say that ostracized people sometimes end up forming their own groups. Like the kids who get bullied at school end up becoming friends. Now, Gula didn't get ostracized in the same way, because her silence is completely voluntary, but it's still similar I think.The silence wasn't allowed to continue for much further, though. From here, the group reaches the intersection where the next three doors are, and Tristitia and Superbia break off from the group to head towards the far door... BGM: Metis This is where we split up, I think. There's a door ahead that can be opened for a classroom that most likely contains some ME-cards. Bia and I should head over there. Nobody made you the leader. If anything, that was my idea too. The earlier I'm in there, the earlier I can leave it.Deciding not to futilely argue against the rabbit, the horse waved at the rest of the group before trudging off towards the door. Superbia followed him without so much as the same courtesy. Faced with that, Ancora...  We're going to wish Superbia good luck this time. I hope you'll make it out alive and swiftly!Superbia's reply came in the form of a middle finger. The hand making that gross gesture disappeared into the room last. Ancora definitely felt annoyed by that, even if the others didn't care. What a bitch. There's no point in even thinking of being nice to her.And that's literally it! That is still, somehow, a TRUST increase with her. From here, Ancora joins Ira and Avaritia, and the trio enter their puzzle room to find a lavish mansion foyer, with a strange throne room next door. The Enneagram of Personality features prominently in this room, with the answer being which person in their group is guilty of murder. In the process of examining the room, the team finds a gun that Ira immediately takes away. The answer is eventually determined to be “Helper”, and the trio leave the room. The rest slowly make their way into the hallway to see him with the gun still out, but Ira is eventually disarmed by Superbia. The group realizes the time for voting has almost ran out, but that they are still one ME-card short. A fight breaks out between Gula and Superbia, which leads to Superbia reloading the pistol and shooting Gula dead. The group split up from here to process and gather their thoughts, and Ancora takes this opportunity to find a quiet place where she can hack into somebody's helmet... BGM: Metis Maybe now would be a good idea to hack. Let's see... Matching frequencies are Tristitia, Superbia, and Ira. I'm very curious to see what Superbia is up to, but... I've got choices, it seems. For now, I'll be hacking... We're going to hack Superbia this time, as we can't hack Tristitia yet- he's blocked off from us here.  BGM: Mens Metis  The solution for this puzzle is... The goal is to break up both segments, “rabbit” and “&lion”. In this case, alternating between letters with &lion in the middle. Both segments have to be torn apart completely, and therefore alternate in full from left to right.  BGM: Medius  Soon enough, that silence was broken again by Tristitia joining her for a chat. It was immediately obvious that Superbia was not very pleased by his presence there. Uh, about earlier... What about earlier? Someone died and it bought us time, so be thankful. You don't understand. You killed someone just now, and we didn't have any idea of their crime, or whatever they had to do with this place. We have to make sure those who die are the right ones. And who put you in charge, exactly? Look, I really don't like being told what to do. I'm gonna do things my way, and if you get in it, you're out too. Is that a threat? I just want to keep the playing field leveled. And besides, you think this is a game? I already kept the playing field leveled, since the bullets are of no consequences anymore, and yes, I think it's very much a game. That MEdiot told us- we're playing “Kill ME”, whatever that is. You didn't level the playing field at all! It just means the only one who can shoot is you, and no one else. Even if you don't have the gun, you already showed you can just take it anyway! And-Aggravated, Superbia gave him the old talk-to-the-hand gesture. I don't care, so keep your observations to yourself. See you around, or not. What an idiot... Bah, most importantly, I have to finish setting this up. I thought he might see it my way, but...She grumbled a little while rummaging on the consoles. She was messing with the portraits, which she'd apparently been doing before, which for whatever reason she'd paused to look around. BGM: Metis Now, her hands plucked one portrait after the other. So, she noticed the portraits can be messed with. That's pretty bad, but at least we're in the clear about who's doing this. I wonder whose portraits she's switching around.The first one was her own. Superbia was acutely aware she was the target for the next vote, because of how dangerous she was. That meant she had to switch them to ensure they'd vote “for her”, but not really for her. The second portrait was Ancora's. She switched the two of them so that the consoles had Ancora's face over Superbia's button, and vice-versa for the other. That's pretty smart, not going to lie. Too bad I can spy on her, and now I'm onto her little trick. I wonder when it was that she learned those portraits aren't set in stone... I didn't really have much of a choice, anyway. It's not like I could've done it any differently. Not only would it require more resources, but I'm unable to grab them.Nothing much of note happened otherwise. Superbia ended up only messing with the ones related to her or Ancora. After a short while, her vision caught onto Invidia and Tristitia walking into Wing A, splitting up at the entrance. Uh oh, I can't see much of what they're doing now. Superbia's staying in the voting room, no doubt. I can't exactly hack another helmet to check, so... It's probably safer to cut the connection so that I can be there when Tristitia eventually comes by. It's especially bad because I haven't seen Avaritia and Ira, too... There were no sounds or any visuals to be heard or seen respectively, while it should have been showing everything from her helmet's point of view once more. Something's wrong. This can only happen if someone forcibly knocks it offline. That means someone bashed the helmet and caused the resonance effect strongly enough. Why did I not feel any of it? So then... does this mean Avaritia or Ira did something?Eventually, Ancora regains her sight and hearing to find Tristitia attempting to help her up. Shaken by the fact she was seemingly assaulted, Ancora hurries away from him, past Ira and Avaritia, and into the Crossroads, where she encounters Invidia. The conversation is standoffish until Ancora confides in Invidia that she was assaulted and “lost consciousness”. Before the two can figure out who it was the rest of the group reassembles for the vote... BGM: Medius Looking behind herself, Ancora noticed the rest of the group closing in. She decided to walk up the stairs before they caught up with the trio already in the Crossroads.  BGM: Mercedis Mellitus All cards were swiped. All helmets were affixed. At that moment, no one could move anymore. Based on what I saw, its obvious Superbia is the culprit, but we can't get anyone to vote for her. They're going to kill the wrong person altogether! Stop! No, we can't vote for Superbia! What's this all about? Another one of your insights? You're defending her? We already made up our minds, s-so vote or shut up. And now Ira is defending the choice too, but... isn't he close to Superbia? No way. If you're voting for her, you're going to kill me. I saw her change the portraits around. You can switch them, see? And each portrait can fit in any other socket! Don't you remember their layout from the first round, and how some of them moved? Now that you mention it... We're sorted in an interesting way. On the left, it's mostly made of herbivores. In the middle, we have omnivores. On the right, we have carnivores. You're completely correct. Bia's portrait moved from the herbivores over to the omnivores... And Cora's portrait moved over to the herbivore area despite being a bear. Like you have anyone's death on your mind. You killed Ula without a second thought. And nobody's dead for this hour slice yet. Mission accomplished, I think. We all survived that hour. So it doesn't even make you nervous, huh? The fact we're going to vote for me? N-No, not at all.The slight hesitation was telling.  Instead of telling Superbia she was full of poo poo, Avaritia decided to change the subject back to voting, which they needed to do before the discussion turned into a half hour long waste of time. I don't think we have much of a choice. We have to vote for Cora. I-isn't that dangerous? What if we r-really do get her? I'm okay with it. I trust in this. You should too. I'd rather trust Cora if I had to pick between her and Bia, to be perfectly honest. Sorry, but my vote's already in. It's do or die.Superbia clicked her tongue in an annoyed tone. Look, you can't vote for me- I mean Cora!But she had already put her vote in for herself. The numerous slip-ups as well as her insistence on having the group vote for her only fanned the flames of doubt, even for Ira. Goodbye then, Bia. And honestly? Good riddance.Ancora put in her vote as well.  Once again, our vote doesn't mean anything here, but I voted for ourselves to keep it consistent. Also, a subtle detail, but the portraits are in different spots on the UI for this vote, because she moved the button covers The screens above the voting consoles settled onto Superbia's symbol. It was clear what was to follow: it was her execution. Every shotgun but the victim's released their hold, leaving the participants to witness the macabre outcome. BGM: Silence  Time slowed down. Eventually, everything froze. BGM: Memoria                                                             Lock #5 obtained. Mix. fucked around with this message at 05:52 on Sep 25, 2021 |
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Sep 17, 2021 20:11
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I appreciate that after all the very dramatic and on-point things Bia says that her actual last words are "Sure, whatever".
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Sep 17, 2021 21:25
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Cora is gonna have to do some real explaining to not look suspicious since on this path she’s let slip about Gula and Lux killing the other Ancora and just now she talked about seeing Bia switch portraits.
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Sep 19, 2021 00:24
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I still wonder how much this narrative is going to let Ancora be the Bad Guy. Like, is she being forced into masterminding all of this? Will she have a sympathetic, understandable reason for this? Or are we going to go full Villain Protagonist in here?
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Sep 19, 2021 00:28
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Mecca-Benghazi posted:Cora is gonna have to do some real explaining to not look suspicious since on this path she’s let slip about Gula and Lux killing the other Ancora and just now she talked about seeing Bia switch portraits. *If she actually is the mastermind. I'm thinking she's actually not in charge - she thinks she is, but the reality is she's being controlled as much as anybody else. She has more knowledge and some extra abilities, but it's basically like being a rook instead of a pawn - a more powerful piece on the chessboard but still a piece on the chessboard.
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Sep 19, 2021 00:51
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Okay, unrelatedly, "Lucille" can't be Lux or Bia, assuming we can take the death convos at face value with regards to names. Which leaves either Gula or Ava as the terrorist.
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Sep 19, 2021 00:59
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MagusofStars posted:*If she actually is the mastermind. I'm thinking she's actually not in charge - she thinks she is, but the reality is she's being controlled as much as anybody else. She has more knowledge and some extra abilities, but it's basically like being a rook instead of a pawn - a more powerful piece on the chessboard but still a piece on the chessboard. Going along with this idea; one thing I've been thinking about is that "ME" could also be an acronym for "My Emptiness". So the "Kill ME" game could be "Kill My Emptiness"; if Ancora is the leader, maybe the entire point is to get her killed (thus breaking the group). I don't know why you'd go to the trouble of arranging an entire murder game to kill her, or fooling her into thinking that she's actually in charge, but then again that's a problem most of this genre has. (Maybe someone just hates her enough to want to watch her struggle for a while?) We also know some form of memory/brain adjustment is in play, so she might have been fooled into thinking she wanted this and is in charge. What if everyone thinks that they're the mastermind?
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Sep 20, 2021 01:32
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 BGM: Mestitior  The bunny's immobile body remained flat on the ground. If only she would simply be beheaded, then a pool of blood would grow underneath her body and that would be it. However, much like in Luxuria's case, a grimmer fate awaited her. Much like in Luxuria's case, the helmet exploded. She didn't carry anything interesting, and everyone was repulsed by the sight of a dead body, so no one approached her. Instead, everyone gathered at a respectable distance from it in silence. Well, that's dealt with.A single thought went through Ancora's head. Before she said anything, someone else did. BGM: Memini Meminisse  He wasn't speaking to anybody in particular. It seemed as though he was more talking to himself. No longer wishing to see the dead body, everyone split up. It was clear this outcome was coming, yet no one really wanted to talk to celebrate. Except Ira- he didn't leave. Ancora remained close by as the others left their vicinity. She didn't mean to eavesdrop, but it just happened on its own anyway. If you'd just... stopped trying to do this s-poo poo, you wouldn't be lying dead on the floor. What did I do e-everything for, now? Now that you're d-dead... all the stuff I helped for...The boy slowly fell down to his knees, still intently watching the body. Ancora felt more and more awkward. She thought perhaps she should leave them alone. No. I have to find out who the traitor is.There was a chance it was Superbia. Ira's words could help. Curiosity took over her feeling of awkwardness, and she remained, making herself smaller by nonchalantly walking to a nearby wall and leaning against it.  He punched against the floor not too far from her body. It was almost like he was sobbing in his helmet. Very quickly, he quieted himself again, clearing his throat. I can't even blame anyone for k-killing you, too. Would be way too f-loving easy, huh? But you chose this by doing all this stupid poo poo... This is all about choice, isn't it? You c-could choose, but I couldn't. I can't choose, I can't ever choose. It's always just y-your choice... it's always just what matters to y-you... what then, what if I had chosen? Clearly you didn't c-care about my help, huh. Maybe I was just b-blind... I should make my own fuckin' c-choices now. I never wanted a leader, I just wanted you.Another punch on the ground. It was strong enough to cause the room to shake a little. Ancora could see he was well-built, but this much? He stood up. Ancora recoiled, trying to hide herself in against the corner. Now that he was back up, what if he decided she was a threat? It was his choice now. A gloom realization set in: he hadn't been doing much, because he was leaving it to Superbia. And now she wasn't here anymore. BGM: Metis  Cautiously, Ancora closed the distance again. She was going to tail him a little, see what he'd do. Everyone had already left this area and gone into Wing A, presumably to unlock the door and proceed forward. However, after coming down the stairs, Ancora realized that he knew she was there. Are you following me...?He asked the words without turning around. When she didn't answer, he faced her again, looking slightly ticked off. At least, as much as he could look like with that helmet on. You know, Bia really hated you. Yeah, I thought that... Hey, you're not stuttering anymore. But I kept trying to tell her that you aren't that bad, as far as we could see yet. She never cared for it. Said you knew too much, or something daft such as that.Ancora remained silent, curious as to where this was leading. But now... I don't know anymore. I'm torn, you know?BGM: Membrana  It's not safe here. He's not in his right mind. Anyone would lose their way after something like this. I'm torn because I fuckin' loved her, you know? I'm torn because I don't want her to fuckin' hurt anybody, but she gone and did it. Did it before, did it now- to me- by dying like a bitchass chump. And you know why this happened? It's cuz of you, and everyone else. It's cuz everyone here killed her that I feel that way. So I'm gonna make my own choice.He kept moving towards her. Unfortunately, he was much bigger than Ancora. The more she stepped backwards, the more she tried to find a way to run around him and rejoin the group. Staying behind had been a bad idea. All she managed to do was trip when she got to the staircase, her rear end falling flat onto one of the cement stairs. He closed the distance rather quickly.  And an innocent was spared. Not an innocent of all things, mind you, but in this case, an innocent. Tell him already! Just say the words!But Ancora's mouth felt like lead. No matter how much she tried to articulate a sound, she couldn't oppose him. He was menacing, and she was powerless. She hated that. Her hate was beginning to form into some modicum of strength, but it was too late already. Just stay here for a while. Stop fuckin' up the group, you and your hallucinations.A large punch flew at her, but thankfully, she managed to dodge it in extremis by rolling to the side, the stairs digging into her skin and bones. Leaping off, she ran around him.  The lion doesn't let go this easy. You don't run from them; they'll catch up and get you.And just like that, a solid punch landed onto Ancora's helmet. The girl fell to the ground like a marionette without its strings. The reverberation caused her to pass out on the spot. BGM: Meditor  She could tell. The contact was clear. But she couldn't see anything. Even talking yielded no results; she couldn't even hear her own voice. Maybe she didn't have a voice. Maybe she was still lying in bed. Her mother was shaking her to wake her up. But she didn't want to wake up; school could wait. She said something else, but she still couldn't hear her own voice. Was she mute? Did her ears not function properly? One hand reached for the bed sheets to adjust them on her. She had been in a deep, deep dream, and now she had to wake up? The hand shaking her became more insistent. The girl was about to turn over to tell her off, as she always did, but after one arm extended to grab the bed sheets, she noticed something was wrong. First of all, she was asleep alone. She never slept alone. There was always someone else next to her. Who? It was hard to remember. There was something else, though; or perhaps, a lack of something else. She couldn't grab the bed sheets. BGM: Silence They didn't exist.  BGM: Medius  She was in the school. In that accursed school. A... bhreh... tahh... Cora, are you okay? What you're saying doesn't make any sense. Ugh... I can't... get up.Avaritia helped her back onto her feet, but the girl almost immediately fell down again. Her legs were shaking. The older woman supported her, holding her and helping her to walk over to the staircase close by. Ancora sat down, regaining her consciousness at an absurdly slow rate. What... happened? What time is it?She very quickly panicked. The timer had been ticking down even as she was passed out.  Any details...?BGM: Memini Meminisse Do you know about... the Tinkerbell Effect? It's an expression describing... ah, I'll just let her explain it, I guess. No, I don't. The Tinkerbell Effect is named after a famous fairy from a movie made for children, taking from the fact everyone believed in her survival, which brought her back to life. I think that's what happened. Huh? I don't... follow. But beliefs don't work that way... Are you sure about that? I can believe all I want that I'm out of here, but it doesn't make me leave this place... Probably not, because your state of being here has already been confirmed. However... the opposite exists, too. The Reverse Tinkerbell Effect. The more you believe you'll be fine and that everything will work out, the less they will, because you'll grow too complacent to act. This is the same thing here- we all believed we'd make it out alive, so now, we can't get out alive due to what transpired.Ancora slowly stood up, only to fall back down onto the stairs.  I want to... get back up... we need to solve the rooms. The timer is ticking... the hour's going away... It's too late now. Instead, I have something much more important to tell you, so please pay attention.Ancora couldn't talk back. Her innate curiosity was piqued, and she remained silent to listen. It's a message from Vidi, which- Despite that, she didn't react to it, as if she did not hear it or even say it. As Avaritia continued speaking, her head turned to the side. She was looking behind Ancora, towards the top of the stairs. BGM: Silence You! What happened in-*bang bang* BGM: Mestitior  An explosion robbed the teacher of her head, knocking Ancora away and back to the ground. In the dust spreading around her, she could barely see anything of the person who had shot Avaritia. A frosty shiver ran up her spine.  Ancora was shot at that moment. She finally managed to catch a glimpse of her assailant, yet that wasn't enough to guard her against a real, physical bullet boring a hole through her helmet.  It doesn't make any sense that Ira would be the one to shoot. He's dead! Also, what was up with that strange screeching? I couldn't even think while it was going on. Was Ira the one to knock the helmet offline and then snag the gun? That's the only way, which means killing Superbia during the vote triggered him enough to go insane? I don't know... and I'm fading...BGM: Silence     Gula directives obtained.
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Sep 20, 2021 17:23
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Interesting. Note that we never actually found out what time it was after Cora woke up, nor did we get to hear why Avarita said "it's over" or why she thought Ira was dead rather than simply knocked out.
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Sep 20, 2021 22:26
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MagusofStars posted:Interesting. Note that we never actually found out what time it was after Cora woke up, nor did we get to hear why Avarita said "it's over" or why she thought Ira was dead rather than simply knocked out. Yeah, I'm getting the feeling that bit after Cora passed out will make more sense much later in the story when we get more context for what things happen later in the game's timeline.
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Sep 21, 2021 00:01
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 We have new directives, but we don't know where to use them yet. For this next route, we're going back to the upper path of the flowchart. Starting from the beginning of the flowchart: Ancora 'wakes up in the classroom, and after introducing herself, decides to speak to Superbia. After they solve the puzzle and leave the classroom, they run into Ira, Avaritia, and Tristitia, and Ancora introduces herself to Ira. Luxuria and Gula exit their room without the ninth person. ME explains some more of the rules, and after she's done, Ancora approaches Gula first to introduce herself. The group make their way into what was known as the Crossroads when the school was open, and in the process Superbia hits her helmet on the doorframe and is incapacitated. Ancora helps Ira with her. The group split up to search for more ME-cards so they can initiate the first voting session, and this gives Ancora the opportunity to hack into another person's helmet; she decides to hack Ira, which is how she learns that Ira and Superbia are a couple. She uses this to her advantage in the first voting session, goading a fight between Ira and Superbia which leads to Ira committing suicide by asking the group to vote him out in a show of defiance. The group complies, and Ira is executed. The group slowly leaves the Crossroads afterwards, but Ancora and Luxuria stay behind to put the used cards into the machine in the center. Luxuria floats the idea of forming a team with Superbia, who is shaken by Ira's death. After the door leading to the next batch of rooms is open, the group explores briefly before regrouping, at which point Luxuria brings up the fact she wishes to form a team with the rest of the participants; however, the rest of the group for the most part is against this. Ancora ends up agreeing with the rest, and the topic is dropped. At this point, Ancora has two options of who to team up with... BGM: Meridianus  With those group compositions in mind, Ancora went with...  Well, we know now that going with Avaritia and Gula is a dead end, so we've gotta take the other option this time. BGM: Medius I'll just stick to the original plan with Bia and Lux. Since we're going with Bia... we should go look for her real quick. She can't have gone much further...The only way out of the wing was the way they all came in from, since anything leading further in was blocked by doors or walls. Because the doors clearly didn't have the rabbit in their surroundings, there was only one place she could be: after the bend, on the left. Yeah, sure.She still didn't care much to group with Superbia after the fiasco of the first voting session. While they deliberated about it, Avaritia and Gula readied themselves and made their way to the door closest to the group- the first one down the hall on the left.  I don't really have a preference...Invidia didn't seem in disagreement with that course of action. Ancora wasn't either, so the group started walking. However, she could tell that something was bothering Tristitia. Hey, Trist... something on your mind? Ah, no, not really... But I was thinking about epiphanies. You know what an epiphany is, right? Yeah, kind of. Had an idea? Maybe. I don't know if I can really talk about it yet, though. I'm a little bit reticent for now, since it's still somewhat baseless. So he did have an idea, then?Ancora...  No reason to press him for details right now. Well, no matter for now, then. Lux, are you okay?Ancora directed a flood of positive energy towards the partner she'd have for the next room, ignoring Tristitia's pondering for now. Yeah... Think we'll be fine, though?The blond one nodded with an encouraging smile. It wasn't like Luxuria could see it, but Ancora wished she could have. Have to remember everyone's a criminal, here. Can't get too acquainted with them. Even Luxuria did something.Despite that thought, Ancora decided to play along with Luxuria's whims for the time being. She was going to keep her friends close... and her potential enemies closer. A very short while later, Avaritia and Gula disappeared into their room. The leftover group of four went together further down the hall; Invidia and Tristitia would leave for the second room, while Ancora and Luxuria fetched Superbia.  Have fun with Bia!Ancora could tell that was sarcasm. With a wave, the two of them vanished inside the room. Ancora tried to stretch her neck over to peek inside, but the door was already shut by the time she had the opportunity to do so. Let's get Bia now.Ancora could also tell that she wasn't too enthused about it. No surprises there; very few of them were enamored with the bunny girl, if anybody at all. For good reason.Very soon, their steps brought them to the corner of the hallway where Superbia had disappeared to. It was right next to the metal plates Ancora had previously investigated. BGM: Memini Meminisse  What the gently caress do you two want? Go away.She was not in a good mood. Look, we have to go explore the rooms... You insane? I'm not moving from here. If things have to get bad... then let them get as bad as they'll be, I don't care. Um... I don't think we can reason with her...Luxuria timidly spoke to Ancora. Seeing how the situation wouldn't improve if they did nothing anyway, she gave it a shot. Bia... we should form a vote group. And with Superbia, it would be four. As much as she didn't want to think about it, Ancora believed that could work. What a conundrum. Either not have a vote group and be at the mercy of everyone else again, or form a vote group with this... uh... bad egg? I... I don't like seeing you like this. I was thinking we could include you in it. We'd all vote for the same person, and since we'd be four in it, then...She left what would happen up in the air, but it was clear. This did get Superbia's attention, and soon enough she perked up a little. Well... I guess this won't get me killed...Ancora knew Superbia was thinking about it now. A few moments later, and she slowly stood back up, looking a little reticent, but willing to cooperate. Huh. Luxuria actually convinced her rather easily. It was a little smooth, too. Hmm... Fine... Fine, then. Whatever. Okay, I'm in. That was easy.BGM: Meridianus  The rabbit girl was a little less reticent to accompany the others. Ancora was thankful for that, because they needed their full team of three to begin with. I'm very happy about that. Let's go now, we really have to hurry to that first room or we'll run out of time.The group ran back to the closed doors and slid into the room next to them. All in all, this meeting had taken a few minutes off their clock. Inside, what greeted them was...  They marveled at this room they had never seen firsthand. And then, the 39 seconds elapsed. BGM: ME Mori On the dot, their visions were all taken by ME, just as the door leading outside of the room locked. I hope you remember the newspaper article from the first room you've explored, because this is the Principal's Office, home of the Principal, the man who was arrested. Normally, it is in another wing, but that wing was destroyed by an explosion. Terrible affair, isn't it? And why am I mentioning this? I wonder if you can put together the puzzle. That man is a rather large link between all of you, even if you ignored it up to now. Unfortunately, you won't be learning his name yet. I say that, but someone in your group already knows his name, since they are relatives! If they remember it, that's another matter entirely. Maybe you'll learn it soon! Either way, that's my introduction done. Don't forget... BGM: Meridianus The entire speech was much shorter this time around, lasting only a minute or two. The group of three looked at each other, trying to determine how to take that information.  Ancora pointed at an opening in the wall, in the far back. And there's that area, too. We should investigate that. Do you think there's another room connected to this one, as pasrt of the puzzle? What do you think would be beyond the principal's office? Beats me... Okay, let's go.The three of them split up as convened. Superbia took the left side, while Luxuria focused on the right side, leaving Ancora to do as she pleased.  BGM: Mendosus  As always, going to talk to our companions before we do anything else. The topic we can ask about is, well, the principal. We're going to start with Luxuria this time. I was wondering if you had any thought about the principal himself. It seems like his involvement with us might be a lot deeper than we first imagined... I don't know. I can't remember anything about him. For some reason, though, when I hear “Principal”, I imagine a big, muscly man. You know, like a wrestler? I don't know why. I just feel like principals are large men with imposing physiques. Very solid guys, with rich-looking clothes, a little tight but not too much, with a tie and a pair of glasses...Seeing how Luxuria was straying from the question, Ancora tried shaking her out of it. Um, Earth to Lux, are you here?She didn't get an answer for another few seconds.  Ancora couldn't tell if Luxuria was daydreaming about that description, or if she'd been mentally scarring herself by imagining it. If you want to know about his name, I don't know. I can't remember what he looks like. But I feel like that man must have been a daddy. don't say it like THAT, please That makes sense... Most people get families. I know for a fact he had one. And someone in this group of nine is a relative, too. Maybe we should get back to the search... You're right, let's go back. Next up is Superbia. Yes? Do you know what's linking him to us? It's kind of... weird. I mean, he's clearly important in some fashion, but I just can't imagine what's going on... I don't know any more than you do, honestly. I'm trying to remember something, and it just won't come out. It's like I'm this close to actually realizing something important, and I can't even loving do it... I know, I can't remember much either... This conversation again, huh? No, wait.She snapped her fingers.  UGH! I can't remember any more than just a letter. Boyd? No, that's not right... I'm sure you can remember more in due time. Our amnesia can't be permanent, right? Like Vidi imagined, it's just gotta be a side effect... Your desire to waste time with idle talking is incredible. Let's go back to the search. Sure, sure.Alright, and now we can begin poking around. The door on the left is the one we came in through, so we can rule that out immediately. I'm starting our search with the bookcase on the right side.  I don't think that's going to open right now. There's some kind of electronics... Yeah, I know. Behind the glass is a bunch of books. I don't see anything interesting. Then why would it have the keypad? I don't know... maybe there's something. Like you said, though...She dejectedly sighed. We can't open it yet. We need to gather more information to open this. I mean, I can unlock it, but it would look really shady if I just did it. They'd immediately realize something's wrong.Next up, the huge mess of books on the floor. This is a big mess! How are we supposed to find anything in this pile of books? What are you two dolts doing now? This isn't a ballpit. We're looking for clues. In this messy pile of books? Eugh, fine, I'll look too. Guess she wants to get this whole search done and over with faster. I wonder why she changed her mind; beforehand, she wasn't all too useful, and now she's a lot less reticent. It's possible she's actually so afraid she'll be picked out for the vote that she feels she has no choice but to help out now.The three of them separated the pile into books on various subjects. Most of them seemed largely useless, with titles such as 'Cooking Apprentice' and 'Writer's Block: Edition Five'. This is messier than my room... Um, it's not just made of books, either. I think I spy a journal with a lock? Maybe it's not his own... On the back is written: “Do not forcefully open! A mechanism will cause the book to incinerate itself! You have been warned!” Nice of them to warn us so we don't lose the contents of this book. But really? That's an elaborate failsafe! Reminds me of another kind of book, a black one, that if the police got their hands on it, it would burn itself up... Some kind of notebook. So what now? We have no choice but to keep it around while we search for a key.There's two sides of the desk we can check, so let's start with the cabinet on the right. Okay... I'm gonna open it.The small and timid girl reached for the handle, then she pulled the door open and inside was... Eek! I don't... I don't think this is related to the room!She closed the door afterwards and left the desk's surroundings. Ancora watched it all happen from the sidelines, offering no comments. I better check on it again, just to make sure, anyway.Leaning down, she opened the door and looked into it again. It sure was a head contained in the pot of formaldehyde. It was kind of hard to tell, because the hair was covering the entire side. Let's see... underneath it, there are a few words. “First, eliminate 2.” Huh... Something's familiar about this presentation. I can't exactly put my finger on it. Did you hear me, Lux? Well, that's that... “First, eliminate 2”, let's remember that.If we examine it a second time... Hey, Bia. Come take a look at this. Here we go!Superbia walked over to the desk, looking over Ancora's shoulder at what she was pointing towards. It's a closed cabinet. Peek-a-boo! The blond girl fell to the ground, feeling the harsh resonating vibrations coursing through the interior of the helmet. You imbecile! W... worth it... That's all we can do with the head. Time to check out the drawers on the left side of the desk. Behind this desk are some drawers. Mind taking a look in them? Hey, you found them, why don't you do it for a change?Superbia was about to retort, but she cleared her throat instead. It seemed as though, for a moment, she was going to act as she always did, but in the end she restrained herself. Well, fine. I'll do it then.In a surprising turn of events, Superbia opened the drawers herself, one by one, checking into each of them for any clue. She reached into the final one and pulled out an item. There's a key in here. It's not like the ones before... It's missing some parts...? I guess we have to keep our eyes peeled for anything that resembles the other half of a key. And we also have to find where the lock is. Maybe it opens a box? Not necessarily.She pointed at the hallway behind the wall, a little further away. There's a door in there, and it's locked. I think that's where this goes. Wow, did you quadruple your intellect in the span of five minutes? Just if you want, huh. Yes, just if I want, shortie. Let's keep searching now, we don't have much time to waste. She reminds me a little of Invidia like this.There's nothing else of note in the drawers, so next we'll check out that table in the back. The table was mostly empty. Some thin binders contained a few newspaper clippings. There are a few articles that might be interesting... There's this one marked with a “7”, related to the bombs that blew up parts of the school. No, there's a fourth one. This one's talking about drugs, and it's marked with a “1”. Apparently, one of the rooms of the school contained a massive amount of drugs. No one ever went in or out, and eventually it aroused suspicion... ...and that's when that room's contents came to light. Yeah, I actually remember that. How much was in there again? If memory serves... there had been enough estimated value to buy an entire castle. Nothing like a vast amount of illicit substances to draw the attention of the police for sustained monitoring.Luxuria voiced a concern following their interest in the article about drugs. But this doesn't really help us, does it? We still don't know which of all these is the Principal's crime. We should keep the numbers in mind, at least. I bet they're linked to this room in general.The trio kept the newspapers close for future reference. Lastly, there's the shelves on the wall.  They're empty. And there's a green pot... Also empty. And... some books... Empty. Superbia's head... And if we check the shelves one more time... Look out, here comes Sir Am Icvase. And his companion, Sir Hamic Varz. Together, they're the two ceramic vases...References to the first game aside, it's time to check out that hallway. Ancora walked around the corner in the back of the room, doing a U turn into a small hallway. At the very back, and hidden from view, was a door. There's a door here aaand... I doubt we can unlock it with only half of a key.Hearing the girl talk about a key, Luxuria came into the little hallway in the back of the room. You mean a half like this one?She showed the item to Ancora, before the blond girl took it to add to the other half, busying her hands while they spoke about it.  Uhh... I don't remember. How do you forget something like that? That doesn't make any sense to me. I just don't remember, okay? I think I picked it up from one of those drawers next to the mess... Well, whatever; this works regardless. Let's see, on the count of five... Four... Three... Four... Five. Hey, wait, where did you come from?Superbia had joined the two of them out of nowhere. Without a word, she gave an annoyed sigh and snatched the key from Ancora's hand, hip bumping the girl on over to take her spot, and she inserted the key into the keyhole, turning it to unlock the door. No more dumb countdowns. We have a whole other room to explore, so let's get going. Our time's diminishing by the minute!Now they could use the little hallway to go into the next room.  They have no comment for this new room, apparently. We'll start with the clock by the door and go left from there. This is cool. I always wanted to have one of those grandfather clocks. It looks old, and also, what's with the cog imagery around the clock itself?She pointed with her thumb, tracing the surface of the clock with it afterwards to check for dust. Hey, you're gonna mess with the time! There's nothing for us to do with the mirror, so next we'll look at that armoire. What about this wardrobe? Won't unlock. Neither the left nor the right door works. I think we have to do something else first...The small girl crossed her arms, rather put off about her investigation yielding no results. Just have to figure out what to do with it, then.The nightstand? Let me guess, these contain nothing too? Let's just hope we don't really have to eliminate anyone to leave this room... Let's put it with the other important stuff we found. I'm getting the hang of this now.The shelves above the bed. There's the dictionary on the shelves above the bed. To be more precise, it's a dictionary in... parts? Who would read the dictionary as small time literature? Wouldn't that get absurdly boring or something...? Why not stories about unicorns? Judging by the look of this place, I don't think whoever lives here would read stories about unicorns. There's a thesaurus in there, too. Is that some kind of dinosaur? The thesaurus rex? That's the tyrannosaurus rex. A thesaurus is just a dictionary for obnoxious people. This isn't useful to our search. Guess we can shelve this thought for now.And lastly, the bed.  Maybe it's a replicated one, and not the actual one... Duh. That must've been obvious; then again, you don't expect “Pandora” to be able to do something like this, so I can't fault them for not thinking about it. I just wonder about the reason for replicating all these rooms... Maybe it's so we feel at home? I don't feel like Pandora would want us to live here, though... We only have six hours in total, more or less. If either of you want to search this bed more, feel free. I'm gonna check the rest of the stuff in here; it all looks so interesting, comparatively. Yeah, sure, leave the people with the “lesser stuff”, won't you? You feel like someone who leaves the people with the “lesser stuff”, so that's your purgatory now.And if we check the bed out a second time...  Yep. I'm not a peasant, you idiot- I don't care what you are; I care about what you found... if you found anything. There was this piece of paper with a diagram. It's giving a bunch of hours, and I don't get it at all. Just take it; I'm gonna sleep here a little. In the middle of an investigation? Didn't you just say we didn't have much time before? A girl needs her beauty sleep.And if we investigate the bed one more time... Zzz... HOLY poo poo, A LION! GET IN THE CAR! Whozzawhat? Huh, what the hell?! Ugh! Let me nap! No! Get back to the search! Reminder this game came out in 2020, so I couldn't begin to tell you why it's referencing a 4chan meme from like 2006. Anyway, with the paper, we can re-examine the clock now. After admiring the clock for a short moment, Ancora pulled out the piece of paper with the hours on it. Slowly, she adjusted each clock hand to the hours, minutes, and seconds indicated on it. Seeing how a few combinations didn't work in any way whatsoever, she gave up, not understanding what was wrong. Tried all three combinations?The bunny spied onto the paper Ancora was holding; the one Superbia herself had found. None of them work. Try adding them together.Ancora tried that, but she saw no result. She was about to give up, but after a few seconds had passed... A small click echoed from a nearby piece of furniture.  The rabbit had already left the surroundings by the time Ancora realized that the clock itself opened, too. Inside was an object, waiting at the very bottom. It was a golden key. Perfect... now maybe we can get that journal open... Yeah, and keep talking to yourself aloud too. Good idea, Ancora.Before we investigate that noise, we can go ahead and open the journal now by combining the gold key with the journal in our inventory. Using the key she found in the clock, Ancora opened the journal. Flicking through the pages, she looked for any hints, but it was clear this was purposefully left blank for the most part. Find anything in it? Not yet. The pages are blank.Superbia tried swiping the book over to give her own cursory search, but Ancora avoided her by quickly shifting to the side. She was nearing the end, anyway. The most interesting page was the penultimate one, on which some words were written, accompanied by a large periodic table of elements.  Keep note of the latter part, at least. The first part is... not related to the answer to this room. It's just that this Principal has a daughter... Someone with daddy issues, huh? And what's with the periodic table? Ugh, that's so dumb.Ancora closed the journal back up to resume her search. The noise we heard was the wardrobe unlocking, so we can check that out again. This is where I heard the click from. This thing should open now.And just as predicted, the doors flew wide open after Ancora tugged onto them. She hadn't expected them to open nearly this easily, so the force she put in made her fall down right onto her rear end. Ouch! Hey, watch out. Do my sensory inputs decieve me? Did she just care for someone else? Ah, okay. Inside is another one of those pieces of paper... This one says: “Second, eliminate 4.” I wonder what that's all about... Clearly, they're directives, but I'm not sure if we have everything we need with this. Let's keep looking around some more.The piece of paper was added to their stuff. We do, in fact, have everything we need to solve a puzzle in the first room, and there's nothing else for us here, so we're going back to solve that. Specifically, we're ready to solve the locked bookshelf. The solution for this one is to look at all four slips of paper that have to do with the numbers, and take note of the order they list. The jar head is first, with the number 2. Then the wardrobe note, which is 4. Then the journal, which is 7. Lastly, the bedroom nightstand note, which is 1. Therefore, the code to open the bookshelf is 2471. I think we can open this now. We've found a few pieces of evidence with numbers on them, and this keypad takes numbers... Oh, I want to do it. What's the code? The code has something to do with the numbers. Remember 7, 2, 1, and 4? Yeah. So what's the code?Her tone was a little more demanding now. Since she stood beside the keypad, it was clear she wanted to input the number. Well, we had indications before, too... How did they go again? Everything needed to solve this has been gathered, so let's do it.  There you go. The correct code is 2471.Ancora communicated the answer to Luxuria, who immediately input the combination, making the glass door open slightly. Now, the group could access the books inside. Huh... I thought the numbers were for... Hey! Look, inside, there are some ME-cards!Luxuria already had swiped one, and she gave the other to Superbia. However, since there were only two cards, it left Ancora without one. There was something else inside, though. Ancora managed to grab a key out of the bookshelf, from behind other books.  And there's something else; there's a piece of paper inside. I bet it's related to the question.Pulling it out, she read it over and then showed it to the others. Apparently, she had no idea what it meant. “If you eliminate those four, what is left?” That's what it says. Feels like... this time around, we don't have a lot of possible outcomes, huh? Yeah. It's pretty simple for a question. Huh? Huh? What's simple? The answer, I think I have it. Even I could deduce it. Why was this room a hella lot easier than the first loving dumb room we've been in? Whatever. Let's gather at the door when you two are ready. They're right, anyway. The paper has everything to do with the question. Wait, wait, I don't know what the answer is. Then don't answer the door. You'll have a 100% chance of living, too. No, I mean, I'd like to understand the process... Oh, well, it's rather simple.She shrugged, motioning over to their combined findings. Some stuff in there most likely has multiple uses. For instance, there's this whole elimination business that I don't think we're quite done with yet... So the crime the Principal committed was... the bombs? He was the one who set them off as revenge for getting arrested? No, wait... That's my conclusion, too. It's the only thing that makes sense based on everything we gathered. No, that's wrong.She shook her head a little. The Principal didn't set off the bombs. That's most decidedly someone else. I guess I'll just answer, then. It's simpler that way. No objections from me. None from me, either... Let ME out! The Principal's crime is... The answer is pretty obvious, but if you haven't figured it out yet, the answer is 'nothing'- the only four crimes that are listed in this room are all ruled out by the clues that we found to open the bookshelf. Therefore, the principal has not committed any crime! Nothing! He did not commit any crime!For a moment, it seemed like the answer was wrong, but the door came unlocked very shortly. The two other girls released a breath they'd been holding. What? What kind of answer is that? We searched through this entire place, we got a list of four crimes- four!- and the answer was no crime?! Exactly. Eliminating all the numbers to open the bookcase wasn't the only use for the indications we found here. I forgot to tell you Lux, but there also was “third, eliminate 7” that I found inside the journal. We just didn't keep track of it on a paper or anything. So your reasoning was good- it was just ignoring part of the solution. Well, let's get the gently caress out of here then. Everything's unlocked, so let's live. Timer's going down, but we were fairly fast. Let's go!The two of them left, followed by Ancora. Probably one of the simplest rooms in here. Perhaps even the simplest one altogether. But this is interesting, isn't it? While this answer should come as no surprise, we now have introduced other crimes into the equation. Crimes the Principal didn't commit. Of course not. The reason is that... My Emptiness is to blame for all of those crimes.
Mix. fucked around with this message at 17:33 on Sep 22, 2021 |
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Sep 21, 2021 23:32
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I suspect Gula is Lucille the bomber based on her reactions during that room--if she's also the principal's daughter, then we can figure that she bombed the school out of revenge for her innocent father getting arrested. A bit belated, but we can infer some events from the other branch of the upper path based on what happened in the lower one--namely, that Trist went into the church-like room and found the gun, and likely correctly identified Bia as the one committed murder (Ira's reaction basically confirms this, and we know that's not his own crime). He was also raving about how someone's personality type didn't match how they acted, which makes perfect sense if Bia is actually the Helper. It's probably a bit too early to piece anything major together, but I suspect Vidi of being the traitor--he seems to have the strongest moral compass of the group, and if it's a group of criminals, then my thought is the traitor will be someone who's helpful and moral (relatively, at least). Given the nature of the game's structure so far, I'm guessing this is some kind of simulation? The Pandora from the conversations with the dead is trying to learn something, while her avatar "Cora" isn't aware that it's a simulation.
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Sep 22, 2021 14:43
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Well there are some more recent things about getting in a car, but that’s “a few days ago” rather than “year and a half”…
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Sep 22, 2021 16:54
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ZCKaiser posted:I suspect Gula is Lucille the bomber based on her reactions during that room--if she's also the principal's daughter, then we can figure that she bombed the school out of revenge for her innocent father getting arrested. I just had a thought while thinking on the update after reading it earlier. Gula speaks -exactly- like someone that keeps a 'to read as entertainment' copy of the dictionary as well as a thesaurus in her bedroom so I'm near 100% sure that you're right, there, and that the second room was a recreation of her bedroom.
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Sep 22, 2021 23:13
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