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 [BGM: Silence]  Hmm... ...Alright. Yup, looks good. My new phony ID papers all seemed to be in order. 'Nancy', huh? A bit bland, but I could work with that. The important bit was that it looked legit. I'd miss 'Mercury.' 'Mercury' had served me well for quite some time. But there was just a bit too much heat at this point. To be safe, better to completely shed all of my past traces. So... Nancy it is. Well, that's my last real affair put in order. There was pretty much nothing else tying me to Panthea at this point. So, time to get a move on. All the money was already smuggled far elsewhere. That cash... one part the personal savings of the Deisma brothers, two parts unwashed Duat cash, a splash of Aija's hidden emergency funds... a nice concoction, if I do say so myself. The total sum was, frankly, unfathomable. It was a fortune in and of itself. If my only motivation for storming this city was monetary, well, that was more of a success than I ever could've hoped for. Really, it all worked out quite well. A successful job done well. So now, to make my exit. It was these thoughts that filled my head as I looked out my window. ...And it was these thoughts that were interrupted by the sound of an opening door. Instantly, I jumped to attention. Who the hell? My hand quickly went to the weapon I had stashed behind my back. And then, I noticed who was actually entering.  Oh. What a surprise.[BGM: Trick Score]  Nice to see you, Chief Baldera.Sure enough, entering into my apartment was the figure of one Baldera Vasquez. She did not look overly positive. I could imagine why.  Laverna.Baldera took a moment to look around. I didn't imagine you'd be hiding out in a place like this. Yes, well, I didn't imagine you'd be able to find me. I kind of made it a point to make sure nobody would be able to locate me. Ah, but that's the Chief of Police for you, right? Always diligent.How did Baldera find me? My gut said that maybe she somehow followed Devon's past footsteps, but the exact details eluded me. Either way, probably was arrogance not to move to a new apartment after everything went down.  And I imagine that's your doing? The whole 'Chief' thing?I shrugged. Guilty as charged. After everything went down, the truth came out about Aija. ...Rather, a very specific, carefully chosen truth came out about Aija. On top of everything else, I also pinned the murder of Kane on Aija. Anyways, both she and Arrianne were arrested after hard evidence implicating the two in the Cock Robin murders was uploaded online. Ms. Aija got a little too careful, keeping 'insurance' and the like. Anyways, Bach's involvement with Aija was absolutely left out of this little truth bomb, and since Aija was categorically denying all of it, people didn't think the leaked voice clip was anything more than it was. Between 'kind of a dick' and 'literally under arrest,' the choice was clear. Bach won the election in a landslide a mere few days later. ...Of course, his involvement, as well as the entire truth of Panthea, was likely to come out soon enough as a much more thorough investigation was being conducted. But that'd be a fire for Bach to put out later. For now, at any rate, the new Governor was tasked with appointing Arrianne's replacement. And as a favor to me... Baldera was made Chief of Police.  You know, I don't really feel like thanking you. Fair. I wasn't asking you to.Baldera just nodded sagely at this. I have to ask, Laverna... was any of it real? Huh? Did you actually like me? ...I think you'd prefer that I only spoke the truth for this conversation? I would. I respect you a lot, Baldera. I think you're a great person, and more than that, a truly good person, which is quite rare. If I didn't, I wouldn't have made you Chief of Police in the first place. But like you? To be honest, I couldn't stand your uber-optimistic, smile-happy, ultra pep attitude. It was irritating, frankly. There was a time in my life I could be friends with overly positive people, but that time has long passed. ...This hurt Baldera. If it's any consolation... you were already fighting an uphill battle. It's not in my nature to like cops. I have quite a disdain for them, if I'm honest. Because you're a criminal? Because they failed to do anything to the people who killed my father. And it was their inaction that sent me into my hell of a life. ...There wasn't a good response to that. ...Disdain for cops. Disdain for criminals, disdain for the rich, disdain for politicians. Feels like you've got a lot of disdain. There's a lot to be disdainful about. Hm.I didn't want to get caught up in a conversation of semantics with Baldera. Well, I'd love to stay and chat for a while. Unfortunately, you just caught me on my way out. Out of this apartment? Or... out of Panthea? ...Sharp, Baldera. Very sharp. You're quite good, you know that? What's the play here, Laverna? You spend the rest of your life running away? Uh, I take the riches I plundered and live a life of luxury. Sure, I'll have to keep a low profile, probably keep to myself. But I can do whatever I want. And I will. That's sad. What? ...'That's sad'. What a load of horseshit. What are you talking about? What's sad about that? I just said, I can do whatever I want! I got my hands on an unimaginable amount of money. I killed the person who killed my best friend. I tore apart the systems that drove my friend to that point single-handedly. I did everything I came here to do. I won! ...Baldera continued to look at me with... pity? Disgusting pity. What the hell was her angle here? Whatever. She was thoroughly irrational, I wasn't sure why I was listening to her in the first place. Whatever. Why'd you even come here? You already said it's not to thank me. Are you under the impression that you did anything good? What? Do you think that you're some kind of hero? Of course not. I'm one thing: a liar. ...But at the same time, I did kind of unravel a huge conspiracy that's been strangling this city for decades. So, I don't know, I'd say that probably evens things out, you know? Probably counts for something, if I had to weigh it. I'm certainly not deserving of the look you're giving me. Laverna... you need to understand me right now. You have not left Panthea better than before. You have not brought about justice, not really. What you have done is proverbially thrown a molotov cocktail into a hostage situation, and you're now just walking away. 'Molotov cocktail into a hostage situation,' huh? I didn't remember you engaging in such prose, Baldera. Maybe Laverna rubbed off on you more than you'd care to admit. I'm serious, Laverna. Well, I'm not. The hell are you talking about? Look outside, Laverna! Look at what's happening on the streets! The Duats have devolved into total civil war! It is a blood bath out there, it is merciless only made worse by the fact that our whole economy is in flames. So many people are losing their jobs with the whole Olympo dissolution poo poo! We might not have liked Olympo, but Panthea's economy has been built atop it for decades now. loving that up has, again, created chaos! And that's not even mentioning the political state of things. The Chief of Police and the Governor have been exposed for horrible corruption. Now, a barely qualified ding-dong is sitting in office, what, by default? With no capability to handle the current situation? Absolutely nobody is happy with any part of this. There are mass-protests going on every day. It's become madness. For some reason, all of this has led to various houses in the forest being vandalized by local citizen groups. It is anarchy, and not the good kind, it's the 'we barely have this under control' kind. If this keeps up any longer, and I'm not going to like what I'm going to have to do. Gonna bring the foot of police violence down? ... So people are having some fun. So what? 'Some fun'?! Obviously you'd have this perspective. You were living pretty before I came in. You weren't the victim of Kane's Panthea, so of course to you, you'd prefer it. Nothing's wrong if you're not affected. That's not r Look, are things going to be dicey for a bit? Sure. Can't make an omelette, et cetera. Call them growing pains. Growing pains? People are going to die because of this, Laverna! People already have. And many people died under Kane's Panthea.[BGM: Tsumo]  That 'mess' on the streets? It's not chaos. It's liberation. It'll be ugly for a minute, sure. But it's what had to happen. Or, what, would you prefer if Kane continued to puppet this city to his will, killing and victimizing anyone who wasn't convenient to making Panthea look pretty? Of course not, bu So then, what should I have done? What you've done all this time? Nothing? ... Face it, you people needed me. Now things will be better. And how do you figure that? Things don't look particularly 'better' to me. No one can see the bigger picture, huh? Jeez. This 'fire' I apparently caused, it won't last long. It'll burn out. That's what fires do. And once it's done, we'll be free of Pathea's rot, and you guys can try again. Maybe this time, you won't gently caress it up. And things will go right back to normal. Zahhak to Kane.
I didn't have a snappy comeback to that one. Baldera had a point. Those drawn to power are those drawn to more power, after all. Well, then you'll just have to do better then. You mean, we'll have to clean up after you? You'll have to clean up after yourselves, okay? That's not that unreasonable.I shook my head and began to pace. Look, it's like I said. I am under no false impressions about my morality. I'm not claiming to be a good person. 'Doing the right thing' was maybe my fourth motivation on the list of reasons I came to Panthea. If you want to spite me and curse my name for tricking you for all that time, go on right ahead, it's entirely within your rights. But even still, I find it incredibly weird that you're somehow blaming your city's poo poo on me. Frankly, the fact that I can be seen as anything short of a hero feels weird to me.Baldera let out a little laugh at this.  Right. Someone who thinks they know what's best for this city imposing their will on it, using false identities, puppets, and occasionally even murder. Never heard of anyone like that before. Oh, don't start with that BS. Comparing me to Kane is the easiest game in the world. Look, I'll do it to you right now. 'Someone who believes in the greatness of Panthea doing what they deem necessary to see to it that the right people are put out of the way.' Hell, you even have the 'tolerating corrupt police' box checkmarked. After all, I can't help but notice that Seth's still hanging about on the police force.
Mhm, don't have a slick response to that? ...Look, at this point, kicking him out would be the same as killing him. When it's a bit more of a stable situation... Baldera trailed off. Whatever. To your point, your comparison of me and Kane is hollow. I find it entirely bullshit to think that there's no distinction between people who use similar means. There are things that are objectively good and objectively bad. This sort of 'values blind' judgement you're laying out only works if you are utterly incapable of understanding nuance, or distinguishing between good outcomes or bad ones. Maybe I was overestimating you Baldera, but I thought all that sounds entirely within your capabilities. Laverna, I'm not trying to call you a horrible person or anything, I'm just trying to get through to you! You need to take responsibility for yourself!I stifled a laugh. Ah, don't change, Baldera. It might annoy me, but the world needs people like you. I know, on some level, you understand what I'm trying to tell you. That right? Yeah, it is. Because for someone who keeps claiming that they don't care about their own morality, it sure sounds like you do.
Baldera was annoyingly sentimental. I should stop wasting time here. Well, it's been fun. But I think I've spent enough time in this back and forth.I began to move towards the door, preparing to finish the conversation and leave. However, just then, something I didn't expect at all happened. Freeze!I heard the sound of movement, and turned around. [BGM: The Pistol]  To my minor shock, Baldera had taken out her gun and began to aim it at me. Uh, what's this? Don't you go anywhere! As an officer of Panthea, I am putting you under arrest.Baldera... ...Heh. So it's like that, huh? I'm a cop. Did you think I was just going to let a criminal casually get away? I guess I just thought you were a bit smarter than this. But whatever. If I can ask, what specific crime are you arresting me for? That's...I could hear Baldera's voice faltering. She had not thought this far ahead. Which crime do you intend to pin me for? Whatever you choose, you'll have to gather enough evidence to uphold a conviction.True enough, over the course of my stay in Panthea I had committed more crimes than I care to count. However, given the chaotic state of things, as well as my proclivity for erasing my tracks, I imagined prosecuting any specific crime would be a difficult task. I'm just arresting you, okay! That's all there is to it. So, what, you're arresting me because you just think I'm generally a criminal? Careful, Baldera, before you trip over your hypocrisy. After all, if that's the sort of thing you can do, I wonder why you didn't bust down any Duat member doors and throw them in the slammer? ... I imagine you have a warrant? That's... You don't? Well, without an arrest warrant, what on earth are you doing? I don't need a warrant! You do, unless you have reasonable suspicion that I'm about to commit a crime. I can assure you I am not, and you have no such suspicion. And you're going to arrest me anyways? Why? Did I not just explain why? Yeah, and like I said, you're not consistent. You're ignoring police protocol right now. You're ignoring the laws. You're arresting me because you think I'm a criminal. That's not a good enough reason. If that was allowed, the Duats never could have survived. Why now are you willing to bend these rules? Could it be, have these events changed you? Do you now agree with my philosophy? After all that grandstanding? ...You're wrong. There's a difference between arresting you and a Duat member. You are an imminent and proven flight risk. You are fleeing as we speak, with no intention to return, as you have expressly stated to me. And... I haven't changed, the circumstances have. There's a difference. Wow. I'll give you this Baldera, your rhetoric has certainly improved. Chalk that up in your 'win' column. This isn't about 'winning,' now come on, put your hands in the air. Why are you doing this, Baldera? You've already proven through Seth that you don't really care about criminals. I care about catching people who hurt people! That's you, Laverna! You've hurt people. You're not a good person. That right? Can't say I agree with you there. Of course you'd think that. You're not objective. Hm. Perhaps. Say, Baldera, do you have a favorite scam? What? Of course you don't, that was a dumb question. I mostly asked because I wanted to talk about my favorite scam. I read up on so many different types back when I was living on the streets, looking for a way to escape. Memorized the whole catalogue. And there's a lot of pretty clever types. You've got your Fiddle Games, your Pigs in a Poke, your Reloading. But for me, my favorite type of scam was always the Kansas City Shuffle. Familiar? ...I've heard of it. Mhm, right. The Kansas City Shuffle is a type of scam that's contingent on the mark believing they've wisened up to the scam. There's a lot of ways you can do this. An overheard conversation, a third party accomplice, a visible switch of cards, hell, sometimes even banking on your opponent's intelligence. But the Kansas City Shuffle requires deliberacy in its target. You can't just spring it haphazardly on anyone. Because the core of the Kansas City Shuffle is that it banks on your target trying to take advantage of the fact that they know that you're scamming them. That's what I like about it. When your mark enters the Kansas City Shuffle, they buy into a premise. 'If you're going to try and scam someone, it's fine if you yourself are scammed.' The irony in this is that when the mark agrees to this, they then try and scam the 'scammer.' So when the Shuffle happens, when their false understanding of the scam bites them in the rear end, they have no right to complain. They give you the justification to swindle them by their own actions. By their own logic. I don't see how all this has a lick of relevance to me arresting you. I hurt people? I might've. It's possible. But you're forgetting something very big. The fact of the matter is, Kane and Aija and Marduk and Odin and Zahhak and Yi and Thane all bought into the game. All were willing to break the law, to do harm to others, for their own gains. And Art and Seth and Lara and Polly and Arrianne and Devon and Chara and Bach and Athen and Fang and Max. And Gani, when he agreed to meet with 'Polly' to receive blackmail on his employer. And even you, when you secretly handed off critical evidence at a crime scene to an unaffiliated third party because you didn't trust your own team. Each and every one of them entered the dark side of Panthea with both eyes wide open. So if they ended up getting lost in the Shuffle, they only have themselves to blame. So what?! Because you scammed guilty people, you're above consequences? You're some sort of vigilante, above judgement? You're smarter than that, Laverna. You know that doesn't make sense. It makes perfect sense. And you're kidding yourself if you think you only hurt criminals. I just let out a sigh. So you're still pursuing this? Of course. Then I hope you're prepared to shoot me, right here. What? You want me to face justice? It's the only way to ensure it. Because if you try to arrest me, I can promise you it's not going to stick. Any moment you let your eyes off me, I might grab a weapon I stowed away nearby and wound you. I'll just be careful. Then what, you transport me to the jail in a paddywagon? You didn't bring one. So either you drive me there in the passenger seat, giving me ample time to attack, or you call backup to come and arrest me, leaving you with me alone in this room for plenty of time. I have a gun trained on you. I think I'll be fine. You'll have to pull out and look at your phone to call someone. I'll back away from you. Then I can rush to the door. First, I'll make you enter the closet and shut it from the outside. Trusting that I don't have an escape hatch in there? Please. Alright, I'm in a paddywagon. Then what? Trusting I can't break out? I'll have multiple officers following the wagon. You trust them to catch me? Trust I haven't bribed any of them? I'll be thorough. And when I'm in jail, what if I just break out? You can't just break out of a jail. But I won't be in official jail, I'll be in a holding cell. Those are far from shining beacons of security. Fine. I'll watch over you personally. Without taking any time to sleep? If you're sleep deprived, you'll be easy to take. I'll take shifts with other officers. And you think I can't manipulate them? With a fortune of cash and cavalcade of information on my side? I'll have my best men on it. Your best men are fallible. You can't just do anything and everything! You're not a god! You don't know what I am![BGM: Furiten]  At this sudden outburst, Baldera's face was shaken. She took a slight step back. Then, after a moment, her grip on the gun became more firm. She raised it higher. ... Fine. Maybe I go to trial. Maybe I get to talk to the public. And, you know I'm going to make it a public event. Juice up the presses, all eyes on me. Then I get to talk. You have no idea what I'll say. ...Perhaps the truth about Seth might come out? Gh! Oh? Have a problem with the truth? Well then, maybe you'd prefer lies. Maybe I out your 'involvement' with me. What? Oh, it's a plausible story alright. You always went to bat for me with the police. You secretly gave me Polly's burner phone. I used my connections with Bach to appoint you the Chief of Police. Where'd all the money go? What, could I have really organized it all myself? Why'd you arrest me by yourself off-duty without a warrant? In fact, I might escape a 'narrow fate' in jail. I might decide to repent, taking us both down together. That's not... No one'd believe a liar like you! Oh, Baldera, the very fact I am a liar proves that I could absolutely get people to believe this. But I don't even need to do that to sew chaos! Why don't I just tell the truth about Bach? How he really got to power, all his skeletons? Why not destabilize Panthea further by turning the populus on the Governor more than they already have? Actually, if I wanted to destabilize Panthea, I have so many ways to do that. Truths about Chara, truths about Isa, truths about Athen, lies about Odin, lies about Gani. There's no end to what I can do, Baldera. Truth, lies, it doesn't matter to me. Put me on trial, and I'll weave both together to stupendous effect! You think Panthea's on fire now, wait to see what I can really do. You're bluffing! Like you said, you're rational. You wouldn't do all of this for petty revenge. No, but I would do it to my own ends. If I make Panthea unstable enough, surely there's plenty of opportunities that would cause. If I'm going to jail, I'm going to need opportunities to escape. The more chaos there is, the more opportunities there'll be.I kept walking towards the door, and I heard movement. Baldera was clearly aiming her gun once more. You're not going to shoot me. Why not? Why shouldn't I? Because if you shoot me, you're just as bad as me. And if you're just as bad as me, then why are you shooting me? Stupid logic fallacies ain't going to save you! No fallacy here, just pure logic. Except, if you shot me, you'd actually be even worse than me. The people I took down, they were liable to do actual harm. There was something to be gained from taking them down. What is putting a bullet in my head going to accomplish, Baldera? By now, surely you understand that I'm a rational actor. Just by investing my money, I can live happily for the rest of my life. Why would I ever get involved with anything ever again? Especially when I have so many enemies, in the law and criminal worlds? No, no, I'm done with the adventures. I'm going to spend the rest of my life laying low in moderate luxury, doing little more of note. The only difference you putting that bullet through my head is going to make is whether or not I get to live a peaceful life or not. Am I worthy of death, or not? Is it worth breaking your principles to kill me, or not? I'm pretty sure I know your answer to that... ...but I've been caught off guard before.I didn't hear any movement behind me. Baldera wasn't putting her gun down. But critically, she wasn't shooting me either. That had to count for something. I decided to turn around. Indeed, Baldera still had her gun pointed at me. But I saw her expression... and I knew. She wasn't going to pull that trigger. She didn't have it in her. Phew. Per usual, I was just throwing out anything I had. To be honest, in an act of idiotic arrogance, I really hadn't factored in the possibility that Baldera would try something. I should've been on alert the moment she entered my apartment. When would I learn that underestimating my opponents would eventually be my undoing? ...Oh well. Not like I would need to use that lesson after this. [BGM: Hatei Tsumo] 
Why? Why? Why what? ...Although, whatever you mean, I'm pretty sure you can guess the answer. ...Some part of me told me that even Baldera didn't know exactly what she meant by that question. ...I reached into my pocket. Baldera tensed up. Easy, easy. Jeez, hair-trigger on this one. Bad trait for a cop, that. Just giving you this.I took out a small card. What's that? Here, take it. Or, I guess you're holding onto that gun and all. That's fine. You can just pick it up when you want.I tossed the card to her feet. What is that? My number. Well, obviously not my phone number we both know that I'm not going to give you anything that could let you track down my location. I'm being very thorough with the move. But no, that's a number that you can use to get in contact. If you ever want to talk to me... no, that's not likely, is it? If you ever need to get in touch with me, use the card. Can't promise I'll answer... but I can guarantee I'll hear you out.
...Thanks. Don't mention it.I turned back around and walked right up to the apartment's door. Well, it's been real. You have a lot of work ahead of you, wrangling this city into something halfway respectable. But I made you Chief because I knew you could handle it. You've got an opportunity here, to make Panthea actually worth raving about. Hope you don't blow it. Stop, Laverna.There was desperation in her voice now. Don't go. I won't even arrest you, just stay, help the city. Put your mind to good use. Please, for your sake. If you keep running away like this... you'll just run by yourself for the rest of your life.I gave Baldera a wave without looking back. Live well, Baldera.And with that, I left the apartment. I left Panthea. [BGM: Silence]   Not quite done yet. Not quite. But first, while I have you... Bach became the governor. So you get your payout. Simple as that.
 Okay, okay, why not one final gamble? Baldera was given a card in case she wanted to contact Mercury. Here's the bet: by the end of the final scene, does she use it? She doesn't.It was a unanimous sentiment that even if the card does end up getting used, it wouldn't be by Baldera. Okay then. Bet recorded. And the amount of chips you're betting?Since it was unanimous, we'll loop back around to betting half our chips which rounds down to 81. Excellent. Well then, see you at the end.
Mix. fucked around with this message at 17:23 on Apr 7, 2024 |
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Apr 6, 2024 18:05
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In addition to the vote, I also want you to give your feelings on the question asked at the start of the LP, as we head into the final parts of the story: Do you think this story has had/will have a happy ending?
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Apr 6, 2024 18:06
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I'm not sure I like Nancy. It's actually kinda interesting how they act after the entire act is dropped, what combination of personalities becomes their 'true' one. This update felt very 'Vels'. Speaking of, we haven't really seen Krish so far since Vels end, and that's one loose end I imagine will come back. And I think that's where Mercury is lying; Krish is just as optimistic and idealistic as Baldera, except they're not a cop. But Vels liked them. So in that light, I don't think Baldera's going to call them. But it doesn't mean the card's not going to get used. So... happy ending? That's pretty objective on what you consider 'happy'... but I think yes... because, well, we haven't specified who the happy ending is for. But Krish is the best bet to get one.
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Apr 6, 2024 18:27
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Not gonna lie, there was an intense amount of "what are you going to do, shoot me?" energy in that update. I was very surprised when the scene ended without Bandera opening fire. Which I guess says I don't expect a happy ending in the slightest. I don't think it'll be Bandera, but I bet somebody hunts Nancy down with it.
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Apr 6, 2024 19:08
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I'm hoping something happens with Krish because otherwise they feel a bit prematurely pruned from events. Though maybe not in play where the end of Fane route is maybe not so long ago. I'm going to vote No, Baldera does not use the card. Someone else might though. I think the story is going to try and hit notes about it being impossible to have a happy ending. Even if it's just because life goes on (or if life doesn't go on, it is rarely a happy thing.)
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Apr 6, 2024 19:50
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By the way, I feel I should also mention the final update of this LP will be a chronological timeline of the whole game, start to finish, so don't worry too much if you're still confused on the exact sequence of cards - we'll be covering that! 
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Apr 6, 2024 23:26
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I'll admit that I too was hoping for Baldera to just shoot. Maybe pop Nancy in the leg or something. There's just something satisfying about having a slimy rear end in a top hat fail to worm their way out of the ultimate equalizer. In terms of the vote, I'll go for no on the card. This is mostly based on the wording, meaning I think there's a good chance someone will contact them but the question specifies Baldera and it might not be her. The happy ending question is still uncertain. Panthea's in flames, Nancy is escaping but Baldera's right that they're not quite being honest with themselves so even with all their profit it might not be satisfying, and the cycle of corruption is likely to pick up again eventually. On the other hand, if Krish pulls something if/when they show up in these last cards that leaves the story on a happy and hopeful note, then maybe that counts.
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Apr 6, 2024 23:47
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I think itll be left ambiguous, with Baldera considering using the card, but we dont know the final outcome. As to happy? I dont think thats going to apply. Nancy escapes, but they cant just put down the conmans life. The city will survive - probably with a little gang activity and corruption, but less than before. I guess thats happy?
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Apr 7, 2024 02:35
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She doesn't. It was a unanimous sentiment that even if the card does end up getting used, it wouldn't be by Baldera. Okay then. Bet recorded. And the amount of chips you're betting?Since it was unanimous, we'll loop back around to betting half our chips which rounds down to 81. Excellent. Well then, see you at the end.
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Apr 7, 2024 17:23
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 [BGM: The Wire]  Ugh. What... time is it? I rolled over and checked my phone. ...Oh. Oh, well. One of the perks of being rich is that you don't really have to wake up at a reasonable time if you don't want to. Still, this was a bad pattern to slip into. It'd be for the best to get used to waking up at a consistent time. Normally, I'd expect the light of day to try and help wake me up. But unfortunately, my curtain blocked that from happening. I should remember to open the curtain at night. I keep it closed during the day because the sight from the window is pretty depressing. Just the brick wall of the nearby building.  That's the price of living in a rundown apartment like this, I supposed. It was a little regretful, being honest with myself, that even after everything I went through, I was still living in a room like this. I didn't really mind it, but it was still saddening. But precaution comes first. It was the burning devil of ambition that drove people to not accept when enough is enough, but I was above that. Quite a bit of time had passed since my escapades in Panthea. Naturally, the hunt for me still raged on. At this point, large portions of the truth of those events had gotten out, and my prestige as some sort of master criminal had grown out of hand. That DNA sample the police had was cross-referenced with samples from my work as the Auto-Larcenist, and sure enough, they now knew my M.O. Even still, that investigation was dead in the water; I knew how to erase my tracks. I had become somewhat familiar with fleeing to a new city and creating a new presence. My phony papers were fairly perfect, and my new disguise hardly resembled my past ones at all. So long as I laid low for a bit longer, I was golden. Which is why I found myself in a cruddy apartment like this. Give it another year or two, the heat would be low enough that I didn't have to be radio silent like this. I'd move once more under a new identity, craft a suitably plausible backstory, and live a lavish lifestyle. In the meantime, I had been doing my due diligence. My stash of cash was all dirty, after all. So slowly and steadily, I had been converting it to clean money through a variety of different methods. Considering the small fortune I had to work with, completely exchanging my savings with a clean version of that money would take quite a while... but like I said, I was going to be spending another year or two laying low. I could do slow and steady. Fighting through the grogginess, I got out of bed and put on some clothes. I walked over to the fridge and took out some toaster waffles. Late for breakfast, sure, but I was getting my three square meals one way or another. I put the waffles in the toaster and sat on a nearby chair. My thoughts were returning to Panthea, as they were oft to do in quiet moments. ...As of late, my life had been filled with quiet moments. I had to fight the urge to reach over to my laptop and check up on how everybody had been holding up. I had done that enough. [BGM: Ura Dora]  I knew how things had shaken out, researching that poo poo every other day wasn't going to change anything. Perhaps the biggest outcome of my escapades was the dissolution of Olympo. Being honest, I didn't really expect an entire entity like Olympo to truly fall apart. Be in trouble, sure. Probably a lot of the bigwigs would be screwed. But total collapse? No, the play with Chara shouldn't have brought it down. The killer was Art he didn't fight it. Neither did Polly, come to think of it. Odin, he sure as hell fought it... but neither of the brothers were in any position to try and keep Olympo together. And because of that, the dissolution went through. A lot of people lost their jobs. Panthea's entire economy... sort of fell into shambles. But, from the ashes, a dozen new companies were formed, and dozens of local businesses received boosts. Things would reform, that I was sure of it. Now, would they reform in the exact same way? With so many similar conditions, with the core causes of Olympo unchanged, was Panthea doomed to bow down to a new Olympo? That remained to be seen. But at the very least, it was unlikely the CEO of Olympo 2.0 would be in cahoots with the city's greatest gang leader and the governor, so I figured that at least had to be a step up. In turn with the fall of Olympo, the fate of the Deisma clan was somewhat all over the place.  In keeping with his refusal to fight for Olympo, Art similarly refused to fight for himself when accusations of his misdeeds came out alongside the flood of other truths. Instead, he humbly confessed to all charges. ...No, humbly implied a sense of grace. It was more of a defeated acceptance. Based on what I could see, it appeared Art had simply given up. He no longer had the will to fight for anything. He'd prefer not to. Was this repentance? I wouldn't call it that. It was surrender.  Anyways, just like Art, Odin's refusal to give up on the company extended to how he responded to allegations against himself. The man categorically denied all charges and lawyered up. It was interesting, looking at this series of events from the outside... it almost looked like Odin was squirming. Funny, in the past, he always exuded an aura of control. There was the idea that he viewed life as a game with little consequence. That he'd be fine no matter what happened. And yet, now that his empire was falling around him, he seemed unwilling to accept that he lost. I couldn't help but get some feeling of satisfaction from that. Despite all his bluster, despite perhaps even convincing himself, Odin was not the mad king he fancied himself. And now that he took things seriously, the pain of having everything stripped from him would sting even more. Because the man would most certainly accompany his son to jail. ...Hopefully. Both Art and Odin were out on bail, which perhaps shouldn't be a surprise. But given their relative notoriety, I doubted either would escape jail for long. ...The fate of Devon I had already witnessed with my own eyes.  Which left Polly. Would he go the way of his brother, confessing and accepting his wrongdoings? Of course not. He, too, was not content to go down without a fight. However, unlike his father, he chose not to fight it legally, instead amassing all the assets he could and going on the lam. In my eyes, this seemed a far more effective strategy. Sure, Polly Deisma was a pretty high-profile figure. Common sense would dictate that it's only a matter of time that he was captured. But the man had a lot of money to play with, and a lot of desperation to avoid facing the consequences of his actions. There was the distinct possibility that, like he had the rest of his life, Polly would avoid responsibility. But as someone who lived on the run, I knew more than most that it was a lifestyle that few could handle. Me, I was fine with this sort of thing. But for Polly? It might be a fitting punishment in itself.  Then there's Chara. Technically, she was the CEO of Olympo, albeit for a few minutes at longest. You'd think she would be a big deal coming out of this. So it's funny, then, that she disappeared in such a fashion. ...Yep. That's right. Not long after everything went down, Chara went missing. She became radio-silent on all her social media platforms. There's been no sightings of her, at least, not that I can tell. She's just... gone. Despite everything about me, I'm actually not inclined to pin this on anything nefarious. I know, I know, it's a bit ironic coming from me. But I'm serious, I just don't get that vibe. Nobody should've been after her, not really. All the main players who could conceivably 'disappear' Chara had much bigger things to deal with than her. No evidence of any foul play, according to some police reports I intercepted. In all likelihood, she probably just decided to make herself scarce for whatever reason. Off the top of my head, I could think of half a dozen explanations which felt plausible enough. Overall, my gut told me that this was a scenario of Occam's Razor, not another Jacy. Still, the curious side of me would've liked to know exactly where she ended up.  Olympo wasn't the only institution affected by my proverbial firebombing, of course. As above, so below. The Duats also collapsed after everything I did. Obviously. A civil war quickly broke out which, uh, did a lot of damage, not going to lie. Bodies ended up littered all over various streets. But, but, not all bad news, the war was fought on numerous fronts. Many members were arrested, with all sorts of information getting leaked to the police. Overall, the fight raged fiercely for a short time, with no clear sides. It was a whole mess of chaos, quickly moving beyond the scope of simple 'Yi supporters versus Lara supporters.' What really brought it to an end, besides just the fact that the organization only had so many people to be killed or arrested or to flee the city, was Baldera, Chief of Police. Understanding the gravity of the situation, she went semi-police state on Panthea, hiring many new recruits, conducting several raids, and having officers stationed all over the place. A bit too authoritarian for my taste, being honest, but it did effectively shut things down. Between the policing and the war, the Duats were pretty much destroyed for good. After things settled down, Baldera relaxed her force somewhat. Still, given everything that had happened, the power vacuum left by the Duats actually has not been filled yet. Who knows, maybe organized crime in Panthea is through. Unlike businesses, there doesn't have to be a prevailing gang. Plenty of cities are without them. But it was just too soon to make any confident guesses as to Panthea's future. I wasn't an optimist.  When I reflected on the Duats, I couldn't help but picture Yi. Sensing the shifting tides, Yi remained a step ahead. He went to the police station and confessed himself, made Fang do so at the same time. Probably a smart move on his part. Had he stayed on the outside for long, he likely would've been shot in the back of the head before too long. This way, he could live to fight another day. The two were promptly thrown in jail and charged with a whole litany of crimes, likely to lock him away for good. In theory, a just outcome. But I don't know... I felt a residual bit of anger welling up inside me. Thane, Lara, Yi, Marduk. All four were bad people, criminals in the truest sense. And yet, out of those four, Yi was the one who came out of this alive. That didn't feel fair. It was a thoroughly irrational thought, I'd be the first to admit it, but I had it all the same. Doubly so when you consider I had the opportunity to rectify that, to kill Yi just as I had Thane and Marduk. Eh. Logic dictated that this was the best outcome, so my personal feelings on the matter had to be shoved to the side. And who knows? Yi has made a lot of enemies, and Panthea's prison systems are far from perfect. The bastard was clever, and he had wisely brought Fang with him, but that could only get you so far. The perverse side of me hoped that things would correct themselves naturally. But no matter what happened, it wasn't my concern. Of course, there were also political matters.  The court date for both Aija and Arrianne had been set recently. It was sure to be a big deal. The odds that either would be found 'Not Guilty' were fairly low, given everything that had come out. But Aija was a fighter, and there was a lot of chaos in Panthea. I knew more than anyone that chaos presents opportunities to the clever. Even still, I was pretty confident that justice would win out in this instance. There were simply too many eyes on the trial. In the meantime, Aija and Arrianne were imprisoned in a special wing of the prison, under the justification that they were 'unfit' to be released into the general prison population. That might be true, but it also smelled to me like a clear case of preferential treatment coming from the warden. ...I hope somebody else remembered the connection between Aija and Warden Pei. ...I was falling into the realms of conspiracy once again. The point was, Governor Aija and Chief Arrianne would face justice and spend the rest of their lives in prison for their crimes. That was justice. If it wasn't, I didn't know what was. Then, moving on to Aija's successor...  Poor Bach. He had only the best intentions. Under normal circumstances, I bet he would've been a decent Governor. ...But Panthea, as I previously mentioned, was going through a bit of a rough patch when he entered office. And then, just more and more of the truth came out, and the full scope of Bach's involvement with Aija was brought to light? Well, that was the last straw. On top of everything else, this revelation brought about mass protests. Governor Underwood did the best he could, but his best wasn't enough. That's when the national government stepped in. Yeah, no, apparently dealing with threats inside Panthea was only half of Governor Aija's job. For just as long as she spent dealing with her own city, she spent that much time keeping the nation out of it. Made sense; honestly its surprising I hadn't considered this angle sooner. So yeah, just catching onto how much of a general shitshow Panthea had become, the Nation decided to step up and clean up before Panthea became even more of an embarrassment to the country than it already was. Bach was taken out of office, and a representative from the national government was appointed as the temporary Governor until a shock election could be held The whole thing was only... vaguely constitutional, but that had rarely stopped the national government in the past. Under the circumstances, nobody was really complaining. As for Bach, well, I hoped he would still land on his feet. Unlike a lot of the figures I met in Panthea, Mr. Underwood never struck me as the type with the skills to succeed no matter the situation. But at the same time, most of the people who did strike me with that sort of impression either wound up dead or in jail, whereas Bach had somehow managed to avoid serious repercussions at every turn. If I were the gambling type, which I was, I'd bet that he'd find a way to make it work. At the very least, his act of making Baldera Chief of Police had not been undone. Good, probably.  Chief of Police Vasquez had been doing her best to prevent the city from falling into total anarchy at a time where that seemed possible. To that end, she was successful. Honestly though, that didn't really say a lot about how good a job she'd do. Contrary to popular belief, it wasn't too hard to be the head of the authorities at peak times of unrest. In my eyes, your real worth was revealed in how you handled more subdued times. I hoped Baldera would be up to the challenge. ...But I knew better than most how power acts upon you just as much as you act upon it. In some ways, I regretted making Baldera the Chief of Police. The last thing I wanted was to see her become the type of person I hated. But if there was somebody who could resist that change, and could actually help rebuild Panthea, I trusted Baldera. To my surprise, she had actually used the number to try and get in contact with me. I didn't think she'd ever use it, and certainly not this soon. I stood corrected. In the voice message, she claimed she didn't want to be making the call in the first place, but she felt like she had to let me know something. Apparently, some weirdo woman with a purple streak in her hair had been asking around about me. Wanting to know if there was any way to get in touch. She had been saying something about... monkeys? To be honest, I was having a hard time following Baldera at this point. Obviously, I had no idea who this woman was, or what she wanted. On some level, I wondered if Baldera was just making the whole thing up as a pretense for calling the number. She ended the call with another plea to return and help fix things. Sorry Baldera, but I had made my choice.  Seth, meanwhile, was now off the force. It was inevitable. Too many people were present when he was outed as a Duat rat. The decision to keep him on couldn't have been unanimous. It was only a matter of time for something to be leaked to the press. To help the force save face, Seth resigned himself. It was probably for the best. In some ways, the man should be thankful he wasn't going to jail for what he did. So many people had for doing far less than he had. Instead, he seemed to content himself spending the rest of his life working as a journalist. Yeah, that's right. A journalist. One with a bad reputation, too. Following in the steps of Kane, bizarrely enough. That said, I couldn't say I hated the choice. As already evidenced, the line between journalist and detective was more arbitrary than it might first appear. I wished Seth the best in his endeavours.  And then there was Krish. The one person I should never have gotten involved with... ...And yet, I'm glad I did. Following the burst of chaos I created, Krish immediately got to work on that book of theirs. In stunning time, they finished it, and sent it to publishers... and it was actually picked up. The book was released, and sold decent numbers. This was thanks to Krish leveraging their position in all this chaos to increase their own notoriety. Smart. The book was a fictional crime story, something of a thriller, though with a slight fantasy twist. I noticed one of the characters bore a suspicious resemblance to me, and they weren't... exactly portrayed in the greatest light. Fair enough. I purchased a copy of the book, and with a red pen, I wrote all over it, giving it my feedback, highlighting the positive points and proposing changes to some weaker points. Then I sent the book to Krish. Who knows if they'll even get it, much less read it... much less appreciate it. Still, after I sent the book, I felt a sense of peace. I was glad I did it. [BGM: Last Dice]  At this point my waffles had been ready for a while. And yet, instead of grabbing them, I stood up and began pacing. I liked to pace when I was lost in thought. Helped me think. Panthea. City of Opportunity. The moniker couldn't be more accurate right now. The place was filled to the brim with potential. ...Yes, potential. Maybe I had changed nothing. Maybe out of the chaos, a similar system would be formed. More corrupt politicians. More oppressive businesses. More senseless criminal violence. Certainly, all these things were possible. But I wasn't such a pessimist to think that they were inevitable. Some people like to say poo poo like everything comes at a cost life is zero-sum. I can't disagree more. It is braindead logic to think that things can't improve across the board. I'm not so naive to think Panthea could become the sort of utopia that Zahhak and Kane thought it could be. Creating Heaven on Earth is a fool's task. But all the same, I think change for the better was absolutely possible. Creating a better Panthea was absolutely possible. Now, would that happen? That was up to the Pantheans. But at the very least, I had opened the door for them. Yeah.. yeah, I had done the right thing. I reached over to a nearby desk and grabbed a coin off it. I began to toss it between my two hands, just to give them something to do.  My mind was now wandering back to the video Jacy sent. The two 'me's she presented. Why do they have to be mutually exclusive? What makes me different from the person I was? In the pit of my stomach, I knew the answer. But I refused to accept it. I was happy. I had won. I was rich, I had my revenge, I did good, what was there to be upset about? I shouldn't... there was absolutely no reason to be discontent. Why be honest when lies did the job better? Why favor teamwork when it was more efficient to work alone? Why have compassion when my targets didn't deserve it? I stood behind my decisions. I stood behind the person I was today. I was smart, I was athletic, I was charming. I could get what I wanted, and I had. So why... [BGM: Furiten]  I stopped tossing the coin. It must be because I was languishing in this apartment. When I got to enjoy my riches, then these thoughts would go away. No. What I needed was a goal. Not some bullshit like 'living a wealthy life,' a real goal, that was the key. But what sort of goal would that even be? I found myself hearing Kane's words echo in my ears. That had been happening recently. This time, Kane was repeating what he said about this country. About how all over, cities were corrupting themselves, upholding evils. As if the country itself was rotten. With all the free time I've had, on a whim I looked into what he was talking about. ...And maybe because I've become so intimate with systems of corruption, it didn't take me long to see what Kane was talking about. He was right. I saw the tell-tale signs of secrets and sin being covered with a positive exterior in all sorts of cities. They were all different signs, sure, different sorts of hidden problems I'd imagine, but all the same, I saw them all over. How many Pantheas were there? And what would stop them? Who could stop them? ...Well, there was at least one person with such a resume. I said I'd leave good enough alone, but still... I was a good person. And as a good person, is it not your duty to step in and do good when you see something wrong? It'd certainly be more fun than wasting away in a crummy apartment or fancy mansion investing stolen money and sitting on my rear end. Like Jacy said, I should be putting my skills to good use. Hell, like Baldera said. Helping rebuild cities? Not my skillsets whatsoever. But tearing down bad ones? Now that was something I could get behind. [BGM: Silence]  ...Was this a really stupid idea? Probably. But should I go through with it? I couldn't say. Then I looked down, to the coin in my hand. Everyone wants to claim as much power as they can. But there is a power higher than any man can acquire: chance. I had made decisions for other people for too long. It was time that something else made a decision for me. So, to retire on top? Or to put back on the masks? It's a gamble either way. *flip*  Ah, don't you love a cliffhanger? I mean, it's not much of one. I know what happened, as do you. But still, it's nice, just, in the abstract sense. Well, first things first... we've got to settle any lingering bets! For instance, you bet that Baldera wouldn't get in contact with Mercury by the end of this scene! And while Mercury, hasn't, you know, actually gotten back to her, Baldera did use the card, so I'm ruling this as your loss. Sorry. But, I have one more question for you. And it's a big one, so listen up. Do you think that this story had a happy ending? I do. Really? You really do? Hm. Interesting. Why? I mean, hooray, the big evil was defeated. Symbolically, sure, it could be seen as a victory. But who really got out of this story better than how they started? Mercury? Maybe. You could argue that either way, I suppose. But I'm not intereted in such a small-minded view, a small-minded question. A whole city was shaken to the core. Whether or not that was a positive thing should determine whether or not it was a happy ending, right? Wrong. Oh? You think that, what, because it's Mercury's story, the only thing that matters is whether or not Mercury had a happy ending? Yeah! Really? And this, you call this a happy ending for Mercury? This is going to lead to a fulfilling life? I guess. Huh. Interesting moral philosophy you have there. Cold blooded, even. But it's consistent. I can roll with that. And actually, thinking about it... It makes sense that you would feel that way. So then, the world's on fire. Rampant unrest. Heavy police state, poo poo economy, complete political unease. A lot of people died. A lot of people lost their jobs. A lot of people lost their faith. Panthea's on fire. So how could that be a good thing? Panthea had to burn. In the long run, it's for its own good. Really? You think so? I mean, the rot has certainly burned away. But really, has anything actually changed? Mercury dipped after everything went down. Bach was ousted. You think Baldera can change things well enough? You think that the national government stepping in will make things better? Ha! The way things are in this country, right about now, I'd call them an impedement to a happy ending, if anything... for now, at least. But no, things are bleak. There's a power vacuum, and the ones drawn to power aren't the ones who wield them well. Zahhak was taken down, and Kane slid right into place. Now, maybe things are different. Forewarned is forearmed, or something. But really, do you have any faith that things aren't just going to go back to being more or less how they were? I do. You do, huh? Why? How? Tch. Guess you can't stop a bleeding optimist, huh? Well, it's your right to think that, I can't stop you. Okay then. A bet's a bet. At the start of this thing you bet that the story would have a happy ending. Looks like you win. Okay then, well. You've had all the chances in the world to win Chips. It's time for you to measure up, see how you've done. In the end, after everything is said and done, you've won.... 110 chips! Congratulations! It isn't the biggest number I've seen, but hey, it's something. It's not 160 chips, but who's counting? ...Well then. I suppose the burden of bringing this whole sordid affair to a close falls on me. But that doesn't feel right. That's not fair. I mean, the natural conclusion to this whole story was back at that final coin flip. If we just faded to black on that, well, I think it would've been a very elegant wrap up. Instead, you've got me here. Muddying the pacing up, with a bunch of nonsense. Sorry about that. Maybe I could be a sort of, well, denouement? A final note after the final note? Ah, but the final scene already served that function, thinking back on it. Hmm. It is a pickle. Because, sad as I am to say it, I don't have some final stinger lined up for you. No final piece of information, no particularly eloquent message, really nothing more to offer. How can I bring this to a nice, clean close? Well, perhaps I'm choosing the wrong objective. Why do we need our ending to be nice and clean? Life rarely has those. And, more to the point, why should I care about your satisfaction? Honestly, I've gotten too in my own head about this. The natural ending has already happened. This? This is just a conversation between two friends. ...You are my friend, right? I am. Of course. Of course you are. So then, as your friend, let me say this... You've been a wonderful captive audience. I hope you enjoyed the story I've weaved for you.[BGM: Tsumo]  Now then, I'll leave you alone for now. You'll be coming out of this soon enough. In the meantime, do what you please, I won't stop you. But I will be busy in the meantime. This could very well be the last time I talk to you in this state. And so, let me just say, from the bottom of my heart... Only 110 chips? Ha! Loser!           
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Apr 9, 2024 02:00
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I do think Zodiac Trial is stronger as a story than Divine Deception, but I will fully cop to enjoying ontological mysteries with a quirky cast trying to figure out why they were kidnapped for a game over political thrillers. But I do respect Divine Deception. I think the "everyone except Devon is Mercury" twist holds up when re-examined, with ample foreshadowing. I like a lot of the characters, (Yi had some of the best lines making him an obvious favorite, but Devon had a strong showing as an honestly extremely sympathetic and sad individual, and I liked how in-over-his-head Bach was, and Krish's optimism was mildly infectious.) I actually think the ending is a little unsatisfying, but I think that's intentional and like the story overall, I respect that.
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Apr 9, 2024 02:23
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Huh. So ez was a real-life person in the world of the story all along. With how detached her asides were, that kind of caught me by surprise.
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Apr 9, 2024 03:28
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There will be a bonus update sometime this week that covers everything you can spend the chips on, and then the timeline which is just a list of each update but in chronological order. That'll be it for the LP, though I'll make another post that's not going to be part of the LP showing everything we know about the third game, The Specter's Desire, which sounds like it's going to be releasing sometime this year?
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Apr 9, 2024 04:04
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Are you going to show what happens when you indicate that you're not Ez's friend?
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Apr 9, 2024 04:14
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TheDavies posted:Are you going to show what happens when you indicate that you're not Ez's friend? All she does is keep asking you until you relent, so no 
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Apr 9, 2024 04:21
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Mix. posted:All she does is keep asking you until you relent, so no I see. So that's what you saw, then. Interesting.
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Apr 9, 2024 06:18
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Is it possible to have ez not laugh at your meager earnings? Or does she always name a sliiightly higher number?
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Apr 9, 2024 15:41
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FoolyCharged posted:Is it possible to have ez not laugh at your meager earnings? Or does she always name a sliiightly higher number? She will always mock you, even if you manage to get above 1000
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Apr 9, 2024 15:46
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Why is Ez contacting Mercury about
monkeys? At first I thought it was a Dragon/Monkey from the first game, but Ez has a singular purple streak, so I think its supposed to be her.
Domus fucked around with this message at 02:58 on Apr 10, 2024 |
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Apr 10, 2024 02:53
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Domus posted:Why is Ez contacting Mercury about monkeys? At first I thought it was a Dragon/Monkey from the first game, but Ez has a singular purple streak, so I think its supposed to be her. There were a few lines from a ??? about that in the first game: quote:I really did plan to make her one of my Monkeys. We don't know if that ??? was Ez, but the colour of that ??? that Mix. used was purple, so I don't know if it was intentional.
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Apr 10, 2024 03:05
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Anyway, how do you feel about this story now that it's mostly wrapped up?
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Apr 10, 2024 03:09
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I found this one harder to get into. Emotionally, the hook of solving the big death game and unraveling the mystery that got them sent there is much easier to latch onto than caring about the fate of a made-up city that I have no real connection to. So many characters and so many weird names again made it hard to really get attached to anyone and care about their fates. Unlike some posters I always considered Mercury one of the better viewpoints. Both 'Mercury' and 'Thane' started in intense high-danger situations with understandable motives of survival and a lot of "How do you get out of this?" questions so I was generally more interested in their stories than in whatever was going on in a lot of the others. Which may mean I made things worse for myself by starting to skim updates for some of the other threads and continuing to be detached from them.
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Apr 10, 2024 04:32
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What happens if you say you dont think the story had a happy ending? Because I dont think that was a happy ending.
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Apr 10, 2024 13:15
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I also didn't really get into the story for this one. I mostly stuck through it to see the resolutions to the big mysteries, rather the fate of the city or the characters involved. I'd put that down to two reasons for myself. The first, that I've already expressed, is that I feel like every character beside Mercury, Odin, and I guess Kane is a moron who can't seem to tie their own shoelaces much less run a company/gang/city. That is part of the point, given that they're all just tools in the battle between Mercury and Kane, but given that Kane himself is in the background for the most of the plot the story feels like Mercury bullying a bunch of incompetents. Which takes me to my second point. Mercury is an rear end in a top hat. I'm not opposed to having an rear end in a top hat as the main character, and some of my favourite characters are complete assholes. Thing is, those sort of characters really need to have their comeuppance to actually be satisfying to read. To risk a derail, I'd compare Mercury to Vriska (I'll trust anyone reading this sort of LP knows who that is). A lot of selfishness, a little bit of heroic intent, and the willingness to do a whole lot of terrible poo poo to get what they want. However, Vriska was constantly being smacked back down, what with losing an arm & eye, dying horribly, dying horribly again, and ultimately being demoted to secondary (Vriska) (ignoring HS2). Mercury, by comparison, manages to slime their way out of every situation and setback without it really affecting them or their plans, and ends up escaping with their revenge, a pile of money, and only a vague sense of dissatisfaction. That isn't really the kind of tale I like for this sort of character. Not to say that this is a bad LP. Thank you for all the work you've put in, Mix.! I've enjoyed thinking through some of the mysteries and gambles. Sybot fucked around with this message at 13:50 on Apr 10, 2024 |
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Apr 10, 2024 13:48
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clifton779 posted:What happens if you say you don’t think the story had a happy ending? Because I don’t think that was a happy ending. She goes "oh, guess you lose the bet then" and the conversation cuts off immediately. There's also a second way the conversation can go if you said that you thought it wouldn't have a happy ending at the very beginning of the game, too, but it's not worth showing off really, it's mostly the same gist but just from a different perspective.
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Apr 10, 2024 13:56
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I think Mercury's ending is rather appropriate for them; as Baldera suggested, they aren't going to learn and grow from this, or put it behind them (they even noted at the time how hollow getting revenge felt). What really motivates them, I suspect, is the risk. So they're going to go to another city and gamble with their life again, and again and again until they lose. Given the mythology theme, Zahak/Kane represented absolute order and authority, and Mercury represents absolute chaos--they cannot build, only disrupt and destroy. Also I feel like we should have won the bet given Bach apparently immediately got ejected from his position. Overall I liked the story, if not as much as the first game. The big twist was really good, but I was honestly disappointed Kane was the mastermind; I was hoping for something a little less straightforward. (I really wanted it to be Baldera, who seemed too naοve and good, but I like what they did with her in the end.) Also sad the game apparently isn't going to answer where the knife came from in the final confrontation (unless I missed something during Devon's death about him planting it, which would be a little convenient but thematically appropriate). Given what Mercury's favorite con is, it begs the question: did Mercury uncover the full conspiracy? Or only the part they were meant to?
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Apr 10, 2024 14:18
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There's also the part where for a sequel, there's really nothing linking this to the first game other than a couple nods like Ez talking about monkeys or them talking about people getting kidnapped in Hightower. So none of the remaining mysteries from the first game get solved. I think there are bits of the story that are done well - the Yi vs Lara disputes were interesting at times, as were Laverna's early cards where she tries to solve cases. Even Lock's early schemes were kinda fun in a way. The problem is tying them all together where each personality being a sham just feels like some stories run into narrative dead ends; like, Vels' route doesn't actually accomplish much other than killing Lara in the end. And Eris' route had a really rough start. I guess in that sense it's kind of like the first game where some bits are pretty good, like the Mouse route, some are really rough like the Ox route, and it kind of works out in the end. But I think this game ends a bit flatter.
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Apr 10, 2024 14:32
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ZCKaiser posted:Also sad the game apparently isn't going to answer where the knife came from in the final confrontation (unless I missed something during Devon's death about him planting it, which would be a little convenient but thematically appropriate). Devon throws it at Kane after he's been shot, but misses because, well, he just got shot. Themis said in some of the commentary around this game that it was actually originally written to have either Kane or Baldera be the God (they couldn't decide which when they were still doing the broad plotting) and that they only made the decision on which it'd be after enough of the story was written to make one feel more fitting and the other nothing but a red herring. So people saying they were suspicious of Baldera actually had grounds to be Themis has also said that there's a high chance we haven't heard the last of either Mercury or Mouse as far as the series is concerned, but to not read too hard into that yet.
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Apr 10, 2024 15:52
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Kane's a weak 'final villain' but he's a better one than Baldera, who only appears in one route. I think Aija would have worked better. That or Yi/Lara.
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Apr 10, 2024 16:06
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Also, compared to the last game, the climax was very anti-climactic. As I was reading, I never really thought Mercury was going to lose. With how smart and lucky they were portrayed to be, it was obvious they were going to have multiple plans in motion to win. By the time it came down to the fight at the end, it was honestly boring to read, almost perfunctory. For as much of the story was focused on luck and betting, it felt like there were no stakes.
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Apr 10, 2024 17:56
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Which is funny since last game also had someone who was really smart and had multiple plans, and they lost. But honestly part of it is that Mercury was presented as someone who did had flaws... but also seemed near superhuman with the feats they could do. Cover their tracks, have multiple identities with none the wiser, martial arts, hacking, sleight of hand, deduction, killing... when all of that is your protagonist, it cheapens the victory a bit. What did Kane have?
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Apr 10, 2024 18:12
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ApplesandOranges posted:What did Kane have? Well let's see: He has several identities - at minimum it's Kane, Devil and Djinn, most likely he had more. He has the tech skills - he was clearly able to plant a tracker and create a falsely encrypted file that didn't immediately seem like bullshit. He could also use drones. He clearly has a talent for convincing and manipulating people - otherwise he wouldn't have the 3 pillars under his control. Killing, well, we know he killed Maximillian and that was for sure not his only victim. If we count indirect kills like Jacy, he probably killed quite a few people. He was also obviously not a complete idiot in a fight and was capable of using a gun effectively. So yeah, Mercury is probably better on the physical fighting front and we have no idea how good Kane is at gambling (he's certainly good at sneaky poo poo like drugging someone's drink though), but otherwise they are relatively evenly matched.
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Apr 10, 2024 19:26
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I think I enjoyed the first game more, which is interesting. Death games are such an overdone genre, yet Zodiac was really masterfully played out. It took advantage of your genre expectations while still delivering a great story. The twist of having all the iterations be theoretical is so perfect I cant believe it wasnt done before, and then it becomes amazing as you watch all these careful plans go off the rails. This game didnt quite have the same magic to it. The different viewpoints style is is somewhat unique, but the big twist of having them all be the same person just didnt surprise me in the same way. I didnt exactly see it coming, but it didnt seem clever, just impractical. Even aside from some faces being assholes, because we dont spend a lot of time with Mercury while theyre not putting on a face, its hard to care for them as themselves. Yet somehow by not being real people, any care you had for any of the roles just kind of evaporates. Im mildly interested in what happens to, say, Polly after the story, but Im not interested in what happens to Thane, because I know that nothing does. They stop existing. So in the end, theres almost no one left to be invested in. And that makes the whole story hollow.
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Apr 11, 2024 00:09
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 At the end of the game, upon seeing how many chips you've earned, you gain access to a shop through Ez with which to spend your chips.  Store's open for business! There's a few different sections to poke around in. Goodies is basically just a gallery where you can pay a few chips to check out sprites, cgs, music, etc so we're going to be ignoring that completely as far as this LP is concerned. So instead, we'll start with Grab Bag at the bottom... Some of this stuff is pretty self explanatory. Keeping the shop open just lets you return from the card menu, for example, and pure reset lets you functionally wipe your progress and the game thinks you're playing it for the first time again this is what I did to LP the game! Narrator's Commentary just lets you get input from Themis when you're re-reading the cards in Zodiac Trial, I brought up a lot of Themis' comments in the bonus updates between routes, but there wasn't as clean of a way to mention that stuff this time around, so think of it as incentive to play the game yourself if you want that.  True Card Names basically just gives the cards a name to specify the chronological order they occurred in nothing particularly noteworthy there, and the update after this will actually cover that, anyway! Mystery Box gives you part of a QR code that, when combined with an image of the other parts in the game files, seems like it might end up tying into some kind of ARG or possible teaser for a third game in the future... but at time of posting nothing's come of it as far as I know. Lottery is, well, you put chips in, you have a chance to get chips out. Whee. And Mine is basically a clicker that is very inefficient but technically a way to get more chips if you find yourself short! So, similar to the Goodies, we're basically going to be ignoring all of this as far as the LP is concerned... but that's not why we're here. We're here to get some answers, and Ez will answer what we ask of her... for a price.   We're gonna start with that top option I'm sure Ez'd love to give her own thoughts on the story we just finished!  And as you can see, the questions we ask wildly vary in chip costs fortunately, this part was prepared before the LP ever even started, with a playthrough I did on my own where I racked up several thousand chips to ensure I could get all the questions! Therefore, let's take it from the top! Who's the worst Deisma sibling? Who's the best? Worst? Best? Why, those are some weighty words. But sure, if you're interested, I could give my two cents. Alrighty then, let's see here... Best Deisma, Worst Deisma... It's an interesting question, I'll give you that. The three aren't particularly analogous at all. Apples and oranges, those three. Take Art, for starters. The most responsible of the three. Actually ended up confessing to his crimes, if that's anything. Clearly has a strong dislike towards violence. Hesitated at the whole 'assassinating Polly' thing. But, uh, he did try to assassinate Polly, so, can't give him too much credit. End of the day, the tyke takes after Odin too much. But he's not Odin. And forcing yourself into someone else's style is never a good idea. Polly's a child, pure and simple. Selfish, small-minded, petulant. Of the three, he shows the least growth. But hey, also he never has someone killed! So that's something. And Devon, hoo boy, Devon. Where do you even start with him? You can assign a lot of the blame for his actions elsewhere. But then again, can't you do that for Polly and Art, too? He directly killed a lot of people. You're tempted to sympathize with him... but I wonder how much of that is just because you saw through his eyes? I don't know. Honestly, getting into the morals of it all is too murky. Personally, I find morality a thoroughly arbitrary subject, useful for fun discussions, if little else. I'm a consequentialist. Devon ended up dying, so he's the worst Deisma. Polly got away, so he's the best Deisma. I'll call it like that.Next question! Who was the biggest villain in the story? Biggest hero? Hm. Interesting question, I suppose. The first thing to do, whenever you're asked a question, is to define it clearly. Criteria and definitions are very important, you see. I'm going to consider the biggest villain as the person who ended up doing the most harm. And the biggest hero the one who prevented the most harm. That sounds fair. ...And yet, suddenly I find myself faced with a quandary. Who gets credit for what? Let's say, for the sake of argument, I wanted to name Mercury as the biggest villain for burning down the city. ...I don't, but let's say I did. Should I then say Mercury is the biggest villain? Or... would that fall on Kane's shoulders? After all, it was Kane's shenanigans that led directly to Mercury's actions. How far are we counting? A time traveler who killed baby Hitler certainly wouldn't be considered a hero in his time. Causality and blame are such tricky concepts. All the same, I'm going to peg Mercury as this story's biggest villain. Not for burning down Panthea, no. That part was quite fun. But just leaving the rubble afterwards? Short-sighted. Because of that, Panthea was completely vulnerable. It easily fell into the hands...
...Well, I shouldn't start babbling about unrelated things, should I? I'll fully admit it's my petty grudge talking here, but I'm sticking by it. However, when I think about who prevented the most harm... well, if Kane wasn't stopped, I have a pretty good prediction of what would have happened. And I hate that idea even more. No one but Mercury could have taken down Kane, in my humblest of opinions. And so, I'm inclined to crown Mercury the biggest hero as well. ...Does that make any sense? Can someone be the biggest villain and the biggest hero at the same time? Sounds like a paradox. ...I'm awfully fond of paradoxes. So then, I'm sticking to my guns on this one.Next question! How would you have approached Mercury's task? Oh, I like this prompt. Okay, okay, how would I have approached Mercury's task... Well, I'll say from the start I wouldn't have been able to pull off the multiple identities shtick. I'm not patient enough for that! And, for the sake of argument, let us say that I'm doing this all on my lonesome. I just know what Mercury knows. Well, from the start, the power players of Panthea seem pretty obvious. The longer I'm around, the more likely it is that I'll be discovered. The longer I do nothing, the more power accumulates... Well then, I guess the play would be simple. Kill everyone at the top! Take all the familiar figures out, someone's bound to make a move. I don't have time for a long, drawn-out investigation baiting a fiend like Kane out of hiding. Not sure I could pull it off, either. But if Aija, the Deismas, and the Duat Senior Officers all disappeared into the void one night? He'd tip his hand. And that's when I'd get him.Next question! What's the biggest loose thread in Panthea? Biggest loose thread? I mean... okay. Alright, let's see... Loose threads, loose threads, loose threads. What even counts as a loose thread? Life is a series of loose threads that don't go anywhere and are eventually snipped. I don't really care about the lives of any of the individual pieces. Except for maybe Mercury's... that's the one exception. Other than that, personal loose threads are... unremarkable. No, what I'd be more concerned about is what happens to Panthea after the fight. We love big flashy fights. They're flashy, after all! But the truly shrewd stay away from anything too flashy, too dangerous. They come in after the fact. ...Simply put, I'll say this. In most things, I agree with Mercury. But on one count, Baldera was right. You don't wipe out every single structure of power in an entire city and expect things to sort themselves out. You really think Bach was ousted due to 'public outcry'? Mm. It wasn't enough.And the last question in this section... You called this story myth-like before. Why? You really want me to spell it out for you? ...Okay, if you say so. There's really not much to it. Panthea was a city of mortal gods. It really was that straightforward. I've mentioned this before, but in my opinion, what makes something 'godlike' has little to do with spirituality. It's all about power. The more power you have, the more godlike you become. And that has various perks.... and also has various downsides. You know what really makes a myth? Beyond just its historical value, that part's obvious. A myth, in my opinion, is a simple story that, at its core, strikes at fundamental truths. Often, said story heavily features characters that have enough power that they may be likened unto gods. And the myth shows how that power either makes the character, or leads to their downfall. This was a simple story, one of a foreign god coming to a dangerous land and slaughtering the local deities until none remained. Can't get more myth-like than that, don't you think?And that's it for questions we can ask Ez about the story itself! ...but that's not all the questions we can ask her.  A LOT more pricey for the final question, too. But we're here to ask that middle question right now. Who are you? You want to know about me? My, my, my. Not information that comes cheap, I must say. Alright then. 150 chips, I'll give you a little taste of my story. Alright. Isn't someone awfully curious? Hmm... What can I do that won't give away too much, but just enough... Gotta keep some secrets to myself. Surely you can understand. ...Oh, I know! You know the game Two Truths, One Lie? I'll play that for you. I'll say three statements, and you have to guess which one is false. That seems fun. Right? If this is a game, there should be stakes. Too true! All right then... if you do particularly well, I might just reward you with a super special bonus round. Now, let's get started! Round one! Let's start easy... My name is Ez. It's short for Ezra. And my deepest, dearest enemy has a name quite similar to mine. Now then, what's the lie? Your name isn't short for Ezra. Well well well, looks like we have a winner! Gold star for this premium name-guesser. It's actually short for Ezmerelda. But I like the name Ezra better than Ezmerelda. More fitting, especially in this context. Still, I like Ez the most. Hence why it's my name. Alright, round two! Hmmm... Well, I'm quite vain. Why don't I brag about my accomplishments? I was a gymnast growing up. I won a fairly prestigious award for outstanding accomplishments in the field of science. And I've definitely killed more people than you. Where's the lie? You never won any awards. And that's a goddamned travesty! I kid. I was never a scientist, are you kidding me? ...Ironic, I suppose, given our current situation. But this is all 0% me, at least on the technical side of things. I'm more the artist. The auteur. I'm a big-picture sort of lady, you know? I see the trees for the forest. Okay, round three! Time to bring in the big guns. Hmmm... I suppose... I'll tip my hand, just a tad. Only because I like you so much. I have major plans for this Nation of ours. What happened to Panthea? In truth, that was because of me, more or less. My Monkeys lie in waiting, all around the country, in all sorts of positions. Waiting to strike. ...What did I lie about? ...You weren't behind Panthea's downfall?
Ah, you caught me! No, as much as I'd like to claim the role of some shadowy puppet master, that's really not my style. The whole Panthea incident was a real spontaneous blip on the map, fairly self-contained, I would say. Honestly, the way things shook out, it probably helped them in the long run. But, I did learn of something truly valuable thanks to the show. So, I'm content. Well then! That was three rounds. But you did quite well, didn't you? 3 for 3! Very impressive. Ah, what the hell. One more round, on the house, in deference to your keen insight into my character. I'll make it... real special.
When I was younger, and far more crass, more thoughtless... I used to carve 'E Z' into the tongues of my early projects. ...Stumbling onto the technology responsible for powering and creating this whole experience was, well... something of a lucky break for me. And... ...You aren't the only one who appeared in that little recreation whom I have in my... let's call it care, why don't we? Because I care. So... What's the lie?No matter which one we say, all she responds with is... ...Heh heh heh heh...Before we get to the last question, we're going to now go back to that other option we saw previously. You may already have some idea of who 'Someone Else' is, based on the previous game, so let's get to it  Someone else? What does that eve   This working? ...Okay, excellent. Do you have some final message for us? A final message, huh? Not particularly. But... for 40 chips, I could come up with something. Sure. Okay, time to come up with something. Well... ...I hope you liked it? That's not enough, I know, I know. But that's really what I want to say, more than anything.  This game was an experiment, really. I tried out a lot of different things in an attempt to see what I could do as a game creator. Some experiments worked, some didn't. I didn't realize this would end up having a much more serious tone. Didn't think things would get half as political as it kinda did, I'll tell you that. I guess that was naive though, considering an election was literally a central premise. I didn't know at the start it'd have such a... ...I'll call it an 'ambiguous' end. I'd call it something else, but I don't want to put my finger on the scale in any way. Writing really is an act of discovery. Even if you ostensibly plan everything out from the start, things don't go to plan. The story develops as you write it. It comes naturally. ...Mostly. The Mercury twist didn't come naturally, I'll tell you that for drat sure. Dotting all my i's and crossing my t's to keep that hidden while not having any inconsistencies in their thoughts or actions at any point? Tall order, I'll tell you that much. ...I fear I'm getting off-topic. Ez and I share a frightening amount of DNA. Not a good thing, as far as I'm concerned. ...Anyways. Final message. ...Hope you had fun? ...No, that's not it, that's not right. I hope this was worth it for you. Hope it gives you things to think about. I know it has for me. So... what's up with Zodiac Island? Zodiac Island, huh? Now that's a story. Not one I'm eager to recount, if I'm being honest. But sure, I'll tell it. For a price. You interested? Warning, this will contain full spoilers for The Zodiac Trial so, uh, weigh that decision. Fine. Okay then. Zodiac Island. So, when I was creating the Zodiac Trial, midway through I had something of a... you could call it a crisis of faith. Basically, my motivation to continue the project was so shot that I almost gave up completely. But that wasn't the only reaction. I almost decided, gently caress it, I'm taking this whole thing in a wildly different direction. Let me be clear: everything I'm about to say, I 100% actually thought about making. Not just thought about it, I was excited for it. I made actual plans for this, pretty detailed plans. And not for, like, a day. For a week, at least.I'm going to just put the text that isn't Themis commenting directly into proper paragraphs rather than dialogue when recounting the story itself, for easier reading. The story of the Zodiac Island starts with Mouse being invited by her friend Ox on a vacation to a little-known island. Ox, in turn, was invited by Rooster, who invited a number of people. See, The Zodiac Island took all of the characters and kept their original personalities intact, but changed their roles completely.On this island, Mouse learns the myth of this local deity, that had all these unique powers. Then she's approached by the god in a dream, and given a rose. The gimmick of this rose there's, like, myths around it is that you should put it under your pillow, then go to sleep. Then, the next day, if you plucked a petal from this rose, you'd wake up back at the start of the day except the rose would be missing a petal. Mouse initially doesn't believe any of this, but tests it out on a whim on the second day. To her surprise, the rose works! Which is good, because the day following that, Ox is tragically killed by being shot, so she uses the rose to rewind that to try and prevent it. But the second time, Ox dies again too, and so does Bunny!  And that's the gimmick. For some reason, deaths are super common on this island, like for some reason people are really likely to die. Not just Ox or Bunny, everyone might get killed for reasons Mouse doesn't quite get. She (and the player) then use the rose to rewind and try to get through a day with no one dying. Every day you got through would be a big progression, and the game would have seven days in total. And things would ramp up over the days. By the fifth or sixth days, there would be some real Monkey route scenarios, with like, 10 deaths, just Mouse and Dog alive. So who were the new characters in this new plot?Well, Ox was the closest to his original version, acting as a prosecutor. Pig was a full-blown journalist. Tiger was a close friend with Rooster and an Olympic athlete, so basically the same character. Those two were invited to this vacation by Rooster, an up-and-coming actor. Rooster also invited Dragon, Horse, and Bunny. But see, this was not haphazard. Those four were actually part of a major drug trafficking operation called Chimera. Dragon was in charge of distribution (had a very similar character), Rooster's independent film studio was used to launder money and handle finances, and Horse was in charge of enforcement and acted as a bodyguard to Bunny, who in this version was not a cop but a scientist, in charge of making the drugs.  There's a bit more to that, but first, some other characters.Dog was the local police officer of the island. Sheep was the local librarian, and also a friend of Monkey's. Monkey lived on the island, and was Rooster's half-sister! ...Which is weird in the context of Zodiac Trial, but there was a reason for that that we'll get to! And Snake was an old local who ran a hot dog store, but more importantly was a historian for the myths relating to this local deity. Looping back to Chimera, you might ask, why would Rooster bring a prosecutor and a journalist, both of whom are against Chimera, into a vacation with four other Chimera bigshots. So, the thing was, Rooster had no desire to be in Chimera. He was blackmailed into it by the shadowy leader of Chimera, who discovered his secret. Rooster's secret involved embezzling his wealthy parents' fortune to finance his projects, but then his mother died and there was more drama which gets far too bogged down in detail for this synopsis. Point is, Rooster figures out through more complicated reasons that Bunny, gasp, is the shadowy ruler of Chimera who is blackmailing him and Dragon! (Horse is on board legitimately.) Also, Horse still acts as a bodyguard to Bunny in this trip. Also, also, fun detail, Tiger's mother was hooked on the drug that Chimera produced when everything went down, so there's that connection. To make a long and convoluted plan simple, Rooster was basically trying to instigate someone else to take the shot at Bunny because he couldn't himself. He basically figured if he caused enough chaos, it'd blow up and result in Bunny either getting killed or arrested. There was more to it than that, I think, but that's the simple way of putting it. And chaos he did cause! Across the multiple possibilities across the days, almost everyone ends up killing someone at some point. But why?Well, this whole scheme actually came from his loving sister, Monkey, for a nefarious reason. All this time, Mouse has been learning about the local deity, and through her conversations with him she has every night when she sleeps, she slowly learns that this guy actually sucks. She also learns, with the help of Snake, about this guy who seemingly went crazy and killed a bunch of people. Turns out those people were all people who kept the historical records of this local deity. To put it super duper simple, this deity's presence was strengthened the more people who knew and believed in them. It was also strengthened by the presence of conflict and bloodshed on the island, and would appear before those facing down death. The deity would offer his powers to those facing this conflict, but usually ended up making a deal with the mark and loving with them. The guy who went crazy and killed a lot of people did it to reduce the presence of this deity. Monkey, who lived on the island all her life, knew about the deity and wanted to have him regain his power. So she figured she'd use Rooster to cause a bunch of conflict, which might strengthen the deity enough for him to appear before someone. And then through that appearance, belief in the deity would grow and grow more and more until he could appear before Monkey. And then, Monkey planned on spreading the good word of the deity across the world, until the deity became a full-fledged living God not constrained by the island. The seventh day final confrontation involves the rose being taken from Mouse by Monkey and Monkey being empowered by the deity with some of his other powers, set up before. I think he also, like, possessed the other characters and turned them against Mouse?? And Mouse won by like... particularly disbelieving in the deity, like, actively??? If this sounds like an insane disjointed nothing of a story, that is only partly due to the half-hearted, poorly paced way I described it. Mostly, it was just a batshit concept I put far too much thought into. Eventually, I was able to take a step back and realize oh, this sucks! At which point, I promptly scrapped all that brainstorming and vowed to not tell anybody about the frankly embarrassing plot I had cooked up. Then I decided, meh, sunk cost fallacy, and finished The Zodiac Trial. Probably the right choice. That said, it's not as though there weren't any concepts from Zodiac Island worth salvaging. Conceptually, I actually really liked the pseudo-AU versions of a lot of these characters. Like, take the Tiger and Rooster friendship. Those two don't interact nearly enough in Zodiac Trial proper, but in Zodiac Island, their friendship was going to be, like, a thing. And like, a good thing, with an arc when Tiger learns about Rooster's involvement in Chimera and everything. I also thought of a mystery idea that I think is actually pretty solid. Haven't had a chance to use it since, but I'm keeping it in my back pocket. But, no, for the most part, The Zodiac Island was a trashfire of an idea that got fleshed out an embarrassing amount. But hey, it was worth 80 chips, so that's something. So, what's next? I don't know why I'm letting you buy this question. I guess I'm desperate. Gosh. How do I even approach this question? Lot of ways to take it. What's next for the characters? I think Mercury did a good enough 'where are they now' segment. Aija, Arrianne, Yi, they're all in jail. Will probably stay that way, at least for a little bit. But jails, well... they're not infallible. Odin and Art will be joining that lot soon. You've probably seen the last of most of those people. Probably. For most. Krish is a writer now, that's good! Clean happy ending there. Baldera, the Chief of Police. Take that for what you will. Seth's a reporter. Cool. Bach's been ousted, but he's also pretty lucky. He'll probably end up fine. He'll also probably want to stay away from all this drama for the rest of his life, and he'd be wise to do so. Polly's on the run, and Chara's missing... Wonder if those two might be related? Both are deceptively clever, and neither really stretched their legs in this story. And Mercury... well, I'll let you figure out what happened with Mercury. The story of The Divine Deception is over. But these lives aren't over. So who knows who might show up in the future? On that note... what's next for me? Good question, honestly. Do I make another game? It's an actual question to consider. ...Except, probably not. I may take a little break to recharge some batteries, but making games is just too fun to not do. I'm in a place in life where I can actually spend the time and resources to do just that, so I'd be a fool not to take advantage of that. In fact, I've already got some ideas for a next project... The minigames were fun, but I think gameplay could be a little less haphazard, a bit more tied into the core of the experience. I like the choices of the Zodiac Trial, but they sort of felt meaningless when you're doing a dozen different routes, erasing the consequences of past choices. Let's just say... I've got ideas. Ideas for the story side, too. I'm pretty sure the location of the next game is one that's already been mentioned in The Divine Deception! ...No promises. And no promises on any of this happening soon, or ever. I'll never promise anything. You'll never bind me to anything! To make a long story short, the story Ez told was clearly laid out. The story I'm telling, a bit less so, but the pieces are there. Or, ignore all that, if it's not your thing. I won't take offense. The world's your oyster! In conclusion: what's next? Who knows! Isn't that the fun part? Thanks for stopping by.
Woah, that was weird! Just got a wicked headache. Well... let's forget about that.And now, the final question, the big one! Fun fact, at time of posting this is the only LP of this game that's actually going to show that last question's answer, so you guys are getting an exclusive here! ...Who am I? Who are you, huh... You really want to know? Yes. Who are you... Who are you... You know... I don't think that's the right question to be asking here. The question is, how on earth did you win that many chips? I mean, I've heard of lucky streaks... but this is something else. To win as many bets as you have, well, I must say I'm impressed. ...It's almost as though you knew what was going to happen. It's almost as though you could remember what happened.
...Heh. You actually remembered everything, didn't you? Well, shoot. Looks like I've got to fiddle some more with those pesky memory settings. But gosh, you should've said something sooner! Playing coy, making me look like a fool. I could blush. Anyways... Now that you've seen this puppy in action, what did you think?  It's perfect. Well, good to know it has your approval. I gotta say, pretty ballsy of you to volunteer for testing it out like this. Just wanted to remember the good times? Gosh, I sure hope not. I would think the good times started after our little union. Ah, but I'm getting distracted. The point is, this thing works like a charm! What are we using this thing for again? What are we using it for? I'm... not sure. I don't like thinking that far ahead. But it can extract memories and simulate realities. I'm sure we can find a way to put it to good use. Whatever we do, I'm sure it'll be a blast. Well, anyways. I'll end it all soon, but for now, let's pretend this little bug didn't happen and continue. And that's it! As I said before, next update the final update will just be the updates but in chronological order. Just something for those of you wanting to have it all laid out
Mix. fucked around with this message at 18:39 on Apr 11, 2024 |
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Apr 11, 2024 02:20
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- There is a wrong screenshot in the Themis section - There is no screenshot of the Themis options - There are 3 big questions you can ask EZ but the "Corrupted data" option is completely unmentioned.
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Apr 11, 2024 09:24
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Regallion posted:- There is no screenshot of the Themis options This one was intentional since originally this was two separate posts but I decided that there was really no reason to do that after preparing them, so I just didn't have a screenshot and didn't think it was really necessary since I asked all the available questions anyway Regallion posted:- There is a wrong screenshot in the Themis section This was NOT intentional, fixed! Regallion posted:- There are 3 big questions you can ask EZ but the "Corrupted data" option is completely unmentioned. The corrupted data thing ties to the weird ARG mystery box thing I mentioned at the start of the LP. It's not really anything worth showing.
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Apr 11, 2024 18:41
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also i mentioned it previously in the thread but the third game is explicitly meant to be closer to the first one's in terms of tone. vibe, setup, cast, etc - I don't know if it's going to be a full-on death game or not, but it's looking like its going to take some elements from both the previous games I'll probably make a post with all the screenshots and stuff we have sometime this weekend, since there's not a steam listing for it yet
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Apr 11, 2024 18:44
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i will admit the Zodiac Island idea did vaguely intrigue me. I think more people should play around with AUs of their OCs.
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Apr 13, 2024 20:23
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 This is simply a restructuring of the updates so that they're listed chronologically, rather than in the order the LP followed moving from card to card. For those reading this in the archive later, this is unfortunately gonna link to the thread rather than the archive updates, but you can probably just use the intro post w/ the Table of Contents to follow along if needed.                                                                                                  
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Apr 14, 2024 03:32
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Alright, now that the LP's done, I'm gonna post what we know about the third game, The Specter's Desire. We have a very broad idea of what the game will be about (setting and broad initial setup) but the actual plot is still under wraps, as well as whether this will be a game with routes like Zodiac or whether it will be closer to a kinetic novel like DD. Some of you did guess correctly, though - the third game is set in the city of Aurea, where Mercury pulled off the heist that earned them the title of Auto Larcenist. The Desire Hierarchy is a yearly gathering of celebrities, geniuses, and big shots, but something is going to be different for this year's event... Something that's already setting the third game apart from the first two is that this time, we actually get to get a real look at who our protagonist is!  We don't know much about him yet, besides the fact that he's considered a 'Rising Star', but we know that at least one of the other participants already knows him - and we've gotten a look at quite a few of them, as seen below:        ...as well as our host for the event.  We know there will be games...  ...gambles (duh)....  ...and what seems to be a system where you collect info and can use it to counter people who are wrong or lying?  The only other thing we know is that this time there's also going to be a system where you can pursue Optional Objectives along the way... and it looks like there's a literal full deck to find this time around, too.  That being said, the next game I'm gonna be LPing (...that I'm already 20 updates deep on basically) is going to be a VN from a new series that I've basically been vibrating to start for months now just because like some of the other stuff I've LPd, I just really, really want more people to check the creator's stuff out lol. I said I was gonna wait a few weeks before the next one but there's a nonzero chance I break and start it early lol. As for this, well, Zodiac hasn't been archived yet, so I'm gonna wait til that happens before I prep this one for archival so I can change the link in the OP to the archive version. Thanks for reading and keeping up with this!
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Apr 14, 2024 20:28
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