Thank you!!!
Stay with Aaron and care for him until he wakes up. Look around the nearby vicinity for supplies to speed the healing process (such as fresh water, bandages, and so on.)
>>729
The you is thanked.
>>730
The more you look at his stupid slackjawed face, the more you can't help but feel sorry for your poor foster father. There's something strangely lovable about his bungling ineptitude which, combined with your current lack of direction, convinces you to stick around at least until he returns to consciousness. While you're waiting, you wash the swelling on his head with some water from the lake, and check him over for other injuries. You can't tell for certain in the low light, but he seems otherwise uninjured. Unsurprisingly, you can't find any medical supplies on the lakeside.
After about ten minutes, Aaron stirs and opens his eyes. He groans and cradles his head, before catching sight of you and yelping in fright. You manage to calm him down and eventually he tells you what happened. It seems that after Continue-chan attacked (in tentacle monster form), he was separated from the rest of the group, and so mounted Dr. Gay Hitler in an attempt to escape. His steed charged into one of the submerged tunnels, nearly drowning him, but eventually leading him to the relative safety of the caverns, where Continue-chan didn't follow.
He dismounted Dr. Gay Hitler, who then ran away, leaving him to wander the darkness alone. He claims he kept hearing your voice whispering and giggling from the shadows - sometimes simultaneously from several directions at once - and had come to the conclusion that he was being haunted by your ghost as retribution for leaving you to die at the hands (or tentacles) of Continue-chan, hence he is incredibly relieved to see you alive and well.
He says he ran from the voices - along the lakeshore, from the opposite direction - before coming across the ladder and climbing it in an attempt to reach safety. He doesn't remember anything after that, but by the evidence it seems that for one reason or another he fell from the ladder and landed on his head, knocking himself unconscious. Curiously, he insists that he saw a light coming from the top of the ladder, which there isn't now.
Theorize that the voices are clones of myself. This is especially likely since Jack Conundrum seems to have many clones, and I used to be in cahoots with her. Look into my memory (which I supposedly regained?) and see if we remember making any clones.
Climb the ladder.
>>732
You put forward the hypothesis that your clones may have been terrorising poor Aaron. Having not been there during the later half of the fight with Continue-chan, and hence not knowing about your recent profusion of clones, he is surprised but agrees that your conjecture fits the observations quite well. Mostly he is just relieved not to be being haunted by the dead.
You do not recall creating any clones; you don't even know how to operate the cloning apparatus. On the other hand, you do recall at >>638 Conundrum-chan mentioned that she found the cloning pods all emptied - presumably to create the Jacks. She claims she was asleep at the time; Ariadne, Alexei, Aaron and Jacqueline were apparently trapped in some sort of simulation; and you were wandering the caverns oblivious. That odd androgynous person seemed to be leading the Jacks, so they would be the most obvious candidate.
You begin to climb the ladder, with Aaron following close behind. It is quite worn, with peeling paint, but structurally sound. After about five metres or so, you reach the top. A light - apparently motion detecting - comes on, revealing a small cubic concrete room. There are four tunnels leading from the room, each with labels: "CLONING FACILITY GAMMA", "STORAGE FACILITY CHI", "SITE 1" and "CONTROL TOWER". Each of the tunnels is unlit.
Close eyes, spin around while singing an the first verse of "the people united will never be defeated", then open eyes and take the tunnel we are facing. If in between two tunnels, take the one on the left. Have Aaron take point.
shoot a deer
>>734
You abruptly succumb to your latent Chilean socialist tendencies and burst into song whilst pirouetting, eyes closed in rapture as you picture the utopian world to come after the workers' revolution. On "Anuncia ya la vida que vendrá" you open your eyes, finding yourself facing just to the right of the "SITE 1" tunnel. You persuade Aaron to take the lead, and follow behind. You become aware of an odd unplaceable whoomping noise, growing louder the further you go.
After walking down the unlit tunnel for about ten minutes, holding onto Aaron with one hand to avoid losing him and tracing the wall with the other to avoid missing anything in the darkness, Aaron suddenly stops and crouches, breath held. You follow suit. Over your shoulder, you see a light has come on somewhere ahead of you. A human figure passes silently in front of it, then moves behind the light source and vanishes from sight. The light in the room you came from has long since gone off, so you aren't lit from behind and there is no reason to suppose they would be aware of your presence.
You continue ahead, before long reaching the room the human figure just passed through, with its light still on. It is the same size and shape as the previous one, with the same - presumably also motion sensing - light. Unlike the previous room it has only two tunnels leading from it (the one you just came from and one opposite) and it has a ladder in one wall, leading upwards. The ladder is marked "SURFACE ACCESS" and the opposite tunnel is marked "SITE 1". There is also a rack on the wall with some equipment, including several torches, helmets and what appear to be geological picks. One torch and one pick are missing.
You haven't entered the room yet, so you are still safely concealed by the darkness. You aren't sure precisely where the figure you saw came from or went to, but they didn't come towards you and presumably didn't come from the same tunnel as you either. The noise from earlier - substantially louder now - seems to be coming from the ladder to the surface.
>>735
Oh dear! You can't find any cervids to shoot in this underground network of tunnels, nor would you have any means of shooting them even if you did.
Bravely enter the room and equip party with one torch, one helmet, and one pick each.
>>737
Brimming with blind confidence, you push in front of Aaron and march into the room. You feel a sense of relief and conquest over your surroundings, interwoven with threads of paranoia as you realise that if there is anyone down either tunnel they have a perfect view of you and Aaron, yet you cannot possibly see them.
An especially loud thump from the top of the ladder knocks you back into your customary pragmatism. You take a torch, flick the switch to check it works (it does), put on the smallest of the helmets (which is still slightly too big) and take one of the picks. It is quite hefty, and requires both hands to swing. You feel it lacks the elegance of your much loved stone dagger, but still it might well come in useful in the future.
You take a torch from the rack and turn to hand it to Aaron, but he isn't behind you. You shine the torch down each tunnel and up the ladder shaft, but there is no sign of him.
Panic!!!
Start running in a random direction while crying.
Bottle tears evenly between 6 bottles. Drink a bottle.
>>739
This is it: the last straw. You didn't realise just how finely balanced your mental state was until this one shock brought it all tumbling down. You scream Aaron's name repeatedly, quickly devolving into just a long "Aaaaaargh" interspersed with sobbing. You collapse to your knees, curl up in the foetal position and hyperventilate for a few minutes.
>>740
Unable to bear this room any longer, you throw yourself headlong down one tunnel, bawling as loud as you can, before settling into a stumbling half-run down the narrow, tenebrous corridor. You bump into something large and fall over it. The thing moves, and you feel a sharp impact on the trilobite scale armour on your right calf. You swing your pick wildly out of reflex and hit something solid - probably the wall - dropping the pick in the process. You scramble back to your feet and continue running and crying.
A short time later, out of breath and exhausted, your legs fail and you fall to the ground, face down on the unforgiving concrete, feeling your own heart pounding away as though trying to break out of your ribcage. Your lungs ache from all the running and your tear ducts sting from all the crying.
You slowly return to your senses, switch on the torch to illuminate your surroundings, and find yourself in yet another bare concrete corridor. This one is wider than the others, however, and has (unlit) strip lighting along the ceiling. The corridor continues ahead of and behind you beyond the range of your torch. There is a stairwell with stairs upwards to your right. On the floor in front of you is a crude green chalk drawing of a dragonfly. Metal doors are spaced equally along the wall to the left as far as you can see, each with an electronic keypad to the right. The doors have no handles, and all but one of them are tightly closed.
>>741
Suddenly aware of how many fluids you've lost to unnecessary lachrymation, you try to conserve what you have left by bottling your tears, but alas your plan is foiled by your lack of bottles.
Attempt to smudge the drawing.
Gi thriugh the door.
Take door
Disassemble door into building materials.
>>741 Sell the other 5 bottles to feminists. The kind of feminists that say "I drink male tears."
>>743
Your attempt to smudge the drawing is a resounding success. You scuff the dragonfly into oblivion. No one would even know that green dusty smear on the floor was ever an insect.
Slowly, quietly, breath held, you make your way down the hallway to the one open door. You step into the threshold and immediately sweep the area with your torch. The floor and walls are covered in small white tiles. There is an operating table in the centre of the room, with adjustable restraints for immobilising limbs. There are several cupboards full of medical supplies - a cursory glance reveals bandages, gauze, sutures, tourniquets, a stethoscope, an aneroid sphygmomanometer, several hypodermic needles of varying sizes, various vials and ampoules of liquid, scalpels, forceps, surgical scissors and retractors. All the equipment seems quite old fashioned, but in good condition.
>>744
It's far too heavy to carry and still attached to the wall.
>>745
You open the door as wide as it will go and unscrew the hinges by forcing the blade of your trusty ceremonial stone knife into the slot-headed screws and twisting until they are all undone. Three butterfly hinges and eighteen slot-headed screws have been added to your inventory. Now unsupported, the enormous metal door slowly leans away and, before you can react, slams to the ground with a cacophonous bang, all the louder for the deathly silence that follows.
On the reverse of the door - which you didn't see from where you were - is written, in large, pink, cursive letters, "Behind you". You don't dare look.
>>746
You are currently playing as Jack Aaronova. You have 170 mana and four unspent skillpoints. You gain fifty mana and one skillpoint for each sapient being killed, which is doubled for killing in a ritualistic manner. Unspent skillpoints can be assigned to any of aerokinesis, geokinesis, biokinesis, hypnosis, technomancy or ailuromancy in order to unlock skills. Passive skills have a constant effect, whereas active skills cost mana to be performed. You currently have level seven ailuromancy and level nine aerokinesis. The following skills are available to you:
You can play as other characters by giving a command such as "be Such-and-Such". Such-and-Such must be in your party - that is, loosely allied/sympathetic to you - but does not have to be physically present. If you die, you will continue from the most recent saved game.
>>747
You cannot locate any lachryphagic feminists.
Unable to bear the oppressive silence any longer, you turn around to see what lurks behind you. Standing in the empty doorway, smiling innocently, is Jacqueline. She has a stick of pink chalk in one hand, while her other hand is hidden behind her back. Despite them being - you thought, at least - quite inseparable, Alexei is conspicuously absent.
Put 2 points into ailuromancy.
Hug Jacqueline and cry into her mouth.
Put 2 points into hypnosis.
Summon a 1-metre vortex when Jacqueline is within 1 meter. If she stumbles, spinebuster and disarm her. Otherwise, just run away.
strap Jacqueline to the table and inject her with everything
>>750
You increase your ailuromancy level by two, unlocking the following skills:
Glad to see any sort of familiar face, you jump towards Jacqueline and throw your arms around her affectionately. She cowers from you and tries to struggle out of your grip, but eventually submits and waits patiently for you to stop. Her mouth is firmly closed, but you cry out inarticulately in the direction of her lower face. She appears extremely uncomfortable with this development.
>>751
Having had enough of this silly cat business, you try a change of tack and invest the remainder of your skill points in hypnosis. You unlock the following skills:
You spend six mana - leaving an ample 164 remaining - on summoning a small vortex around you. Unfortunately, you get what you pay for, and the light zephyr you summon does little more than tug at the hem of Jacqueline's dress. She struggles free from you, and, from behind her back, presents a piece of paper filled with dense handwriting.
You break out in a cold sweat. You weren't prepared for this. All your well laid plans of spine busting were for naught. Unable to suppress your panic, you push past Jacqueline and run back into the corridor, into the stairwell and up the stairs. You emerge, on the next floor up, into a major hallway. A few metres away to your left you can see a hexagonal atrium faintly lit by moonlight through a skylight in its ceiling. You are fairly sure it is the same atrium you were in when you went on that murderous rampage around >>315.
Something is clearly wrong, however. The walls and floor of the hallway are marred by myriad deep scratches and gouges - you can't even guess what would leave marks like that. There is a foul smell coming from the atrium, and you can see intermittent, twitchy movement of small things near the ground. You cannot be certain, but something about the architecture of the place seems different as well.
>>752
On second thoughts, you decide Jacqueline isn't so scary after all. You return downstairs, finding her awaiting you at the entrance to the stairwell, and persuade her to join you by the operating table. You grab her, one limb at a time, strap her onto the surface and pull the constraints as tight as you can. She resists violently, but you easily overpower her.
You root around in the cupboards and emerge with a hypodermic needle and several unmarked ampoules. Taking pleasure in the experience of experimenting, you inject one after the other into her veins. After the third she falls into a seizure, convulsing and foaming at the mouth, before falling still and ceasing to breath. She dies soon after. The piece of paper she so insistently wanted to show you - which she had been gripping tightly until now - falls softly from her hand to the floor.
For killing a sapient being, you have gained one skill point and fifty mana.
Shout "Whoops-a-daisy!" and laugh.
Take the paper and read it.
Put another skill point into hypnosis.
Attempt to resuscitate Jacqueline.
Find someone to project the image of a penis onto for 15 seconds.
>>754
You find yourself unable to look away from Jacqueline's body. Her mouth is still slightly open, her lips still slightly damp. Her hair and clothing are barely ruffled, and you could almost convince yourself that she's only sleeping, were it not for that intolerable, unnatural stillness about her. You stare ever more intensely, as though willing her small chest to rise and fall again by sheer force of will, but the only movement is the shifting torchlight caused by your shaking hands.
Unable to confront your own actions and needing something to dispel the heavy, viscous silence that has settled over you, you shout something facetious and a burst of nervous, high pitched laughter explodes from you. Your mirth dies almost immediately. You take the paper from the floor, eager for any distraction. It reads:
To Whom it may Concern,
Please accept my most sincere apologies in dispensing with the customary formalities, but I find myself in a dire state of emergency. My companion and consort (Dr. Alexei Fujiwara)'s whereabouts are unknown, and he must be located as a matter of the utmost urgency. He was last seen in a nearby series of unlit service tunnels, immediately after arriving at a junction.
If you are in possession of information of his whereabouts, I beseech you to divulge it forthwith. Otherwise, please allow me to guide you to the gentleman's last known whereabouts, whence we can conduct a formal search. I will give due consideration to any conditions you place upon your compliance. Naturally, your aid will be generously recompensed to the best of my ability.
Yours Faithfully,
Jacqueline Conundra
You place one skill point into hypnosis, unlocking the following skill:
>>755
Suddenly overcome with remorse, you unstrap your victim from the table and pull her limp body to the floor. You are about to begin cardiopulmonary resuscitation when you notice you are still gripping the very syringe you used to kill her. You throw the hateful thing aside and press on (thirty chest compressions then two rescue breaths, repeated indefinitely) until you are out of breath, cursing every second you wasted earlier on laughing to yourself and reading. She shows no signs of life, and if anything looks even paler and less like her living self than ever.
You poke your head outside and scan the corridor with your torch, but there is no one with whom to share your conceptual phallus. You would make more of an effort to find someone, but you simply aren't sure where to begin. You could return along the corridor back towards the service tunnels - but what if you run into Alexei? - or the other way down the corridor into the unknown, or upstairs into the main building, or downstairs to whatever lies below. You could even try to make your way outside, but that might require a venture through the atrium, and something about the thought fills you with dread.
Go down. Down down down down.
Cast manipulate aggression on self.
Cut our hair short to avoid being grabbed (using our knife)
>>757
You find you cannot bear being near Jacqueline's corpse a moment longer. You need to be somewhere else; anywhere else. You descend one flight of stairs after another, passing countless empty corridors. There is no sound or movement but your own breathing and footsteps. Finally you reach the bottom of the stairwell - or at least a point below which you cannot descend any further. The entire stairwell below here is filled with a fine grey powder; probably dust or ash. It also fills the corridor connecting to this floor of the stairwell, however there is about half a metre's gap between the highest point of the dust and the lowest point of the door lintel. Seeking ever deeper locations, you crawl through.
Clouds of dust billow around you, coating your mouth, throat and sinuses in a single breath. You struggle onwards, barely able to breathe, scrambling frantically forwards and kicking up more dust in the process, until you manage to get into the room opposite the entrance to the stairwell - which, thankfully, had an open door. Inside, the surface of the dust falls away towards the floor at its shallow angle of repose. Once the dust settles and you can breathe properly again, you look around. The room is of identical proportions to the operating room upstairs in which you murdered Jacqueline. It is empty apart from a few old pipes running along the ceiling. The door appears to have been forced open by the weight of the dust from the other side, as there is none on this side apart from what has spilled in from the corridor.
More interestingly, there is a tunnel in the opposite wall. Not a regular concrete service tunnel, nor a naturally formed cave tunnel, but an arch shaped tunnel built out of old, heavily worn brownish bricks. There are empty cast iron sconces in the walls at irregular intervals. It connects seamlessly to the ordinary concrete room you're in, like some sort of bizarre anachronism. Nonetheless, it does lead downwards, so you decide you may as well follow it.
The tunnel is in a poor state of repair, with loose bricks missing from the ceiling and flagstones buckling and sticking upwards in the floor - not only that, but it appears to have been poorly constructed in the first place. It meanders left and right, sometimes at sharp angles, and occasionally juts downwards in a series of steep steps for no obvious reason. In some places it is wider or narrower than others, and in some places the ceiling is so low you have to stoop.
Finally, you round a corner and arrive in a large, seemingly natural open space. Unlike the caverns you were in earlier, the ground is just an inert grey rock, with no signs of life. Around ten metres in front of you the floor drops away suddenly. Looking closer, you find yourself on the edge of a cliff overlooking an enormous abyss. Your torchlight cannot reach the bottom, nor the other side - if either exists. You try dropping a stone into it, but never hear it hit the ground. You could, in theory, go further down, but this seems like a good place to stop for now.
>>758
You spend thirty mana - leaving 184 remaining - on lowering your own aggression. Perhaps that'll go some way towards preventing you from randomly murdering any more innocent girls trying to solicit your help in future. You take a deep breath and feel suddenly at peace with the world. The ghost of a smile appears on the corners of your lips.
>>759
You notice that you had been instinctively gripping the handle of your ceremonial dagger, ready to use it to defend yourself at a moment's notice. Well, there's no need for that now, is there? Rather, why not put it to a better use, and give yourself a much needed haircut? You hack away at your long, black hair - matted with blood - until it mostly lies in small piles at your feet. You happily bob your head back and forth, feeling how much lighter it is without all that added weight.
>>760
This seems a nice, contemplative place, you decide; perfect for a real heartfelt discussion with yourself about what sort of person you have become and whether you're really happy with how things are going. You have no end of questions: was it right for you to abandon your post as high priestess? What of your tribe? And what of the dark power you were sacrificing to every Christmas? How do you reconcile the atrocities you've committed with your position in the Aaronov family? Before you can come to any answers, however, you are interrupted by a gust of air against the back of your neck.
Turning around and shining your torch in that direction, you find an enormous insectoid creature, bone white and covered in fine hairs. It appears to be anatomically similar to a moth, but with the wingspan of a small aircraft. It hovers just above the ground a few metres from you, wings flapping rapidly, proboscis extended and labial palps abristle. Its bulbous compound eyes betray no sign of emotion. You notice it has serious tears in both hindwings, suggesting it has seen conflict. It appears to be blocking the way you came, but you could potentially run away in either direction along the edge of the abyss.
Project image of a penis onto moth
Calculate optimal time for searching for answers inside myself.
Manipulate aggression of moth to calm it down, then mount it.
Name our new steed TiMothy.
Ride on TiMothy down, down, down, down.
>>763
At that moment, sandwiched between an enormous, potentially violent insectoid creature and the infinite black abyss, you reflect that if you die now you will die without ever having seen a penis. It's not even as though you particularly want to, but it seems the sort of experience every woman has sooner or (preferably) later. You want meet your death as a proud, experienced young lady, not a naive little girl. You attempt to let the moth-like monster know your last wish by telepathy. Having never seen one, you aren't quite sure what to project, so you base the image on one of the mushrooms you saw in the caverns. That must be about right.
The moth - until now cautiously keeping its distance - suddenly swoops towards you, perhaps in response to your mental projection.
>>764
Observing the velocity and acceleration of the moth and its distance from you, a Fermi estimate gives you on the order of one second before it gets to you. This would suggest that the optimal time to be searching for answers inside yourself is now.
Unfortunately, you used all your potential introspection time on calculating how much time was left for it, so you now have only enough time to feel rather stupid before the moth creature collides with you, pins you to the ground with its legs, thrusts its proboscis into the fleshy part under your chin, between your larynx and your jawbone, into your upper spine, and feeds on your cerebrospinal fluid. You die.
GAME OVER
Deaths: 31
(Continuing from most recent saved game: >>762)
>>765
As it worked so well on you, you decide to spend thirty mana reducing the aggression of the moth creature as well. There is no obvious effect, at first. After a moment's wait, you extend your hand and beckon it forwards. Hesitantly, nervously, it flutters towards you, only a metre or two from the edge of the chasm. You move around to mount it, but at that moment, just when you least expected it, Ao Oni charges out of the darkness, grotesquely swollen blue face flashing once through the beam of your torch, before colliding with the moth and sending both of them tumbling over the edge.
Not willing to have your steed stolen just like that, you hurl yourself from the cliff into the darkness, landing after a few terrifying moments on TiMothy's abdomen, still barely keeping grasp of your torch and ceremonial knife. Ao Oni is standing on TiMothy's thorax, facing away from you, holding TiMothy by one antenna. TiMothy is flapping its wings desperately, unable to accommodate the added weight of you and Ao Oni. The three of you are currently plummeting downwards into the abyss at quite a substantial speed.
Use temporary possession to control Ao Oni, making him let go of TiMothy and instead punch himself in the face repeatedly for 30 seconds.
I definitely did not expect that. Well done.
>>767
You find that both your fear of impending death and your desire to tame TiMothy as your mount pale in comparison to your need for self understanding. Gripping TiMothy's lower body to avoid falling, you reevaluate your short life and attempt to frame it in some sort of unified theory that will answer your every question (or at least the important ones). Just as you are beginning to make some progress, however, TiMothy suddenly reels backwards, flipping momentarily entirely upside down, before settling with the axis of its body almost vertical. You drop your torch, and Ao Oni loses his grip on TiMothy's antennae, falling backwards towards you. His weight collides with your skull, crushing it, and sending your corpse tumbling forever into the infinite black void beneath.
GAME OVER
Deaths: 32
(Continuing from most recent saved game: >>766)
>>768
Troublingly, it seems that the Temporary Possession skill requires line of sight, while Ao Oni is facing the other way, tugging on TiMothy's antennae. You shout to try to attract his attention, but he doesn't hear over the noise of the rushing wind all around. Lacking an alternative, you crawl forwards along TiMothy's ample, fuzzy back towards the blue demon, and strike him in the right ankle with the pommel of your ceremonial stone knife. He turns over his shoulder and looks down at you. Each of his bloated, unblinking eyes is larger than your entire head. Unperturbed, you stare back with equal intensity, forcing his crude, animalistic mind to bend to your will.
He lets go of TiMothy's antennae and begins ineffectively pummelling his chin with his fists - his atrophied arms not long enough to reach his enormous, distended face - maintaining eye contact the entire time. TiMothy's flight begins to stabilise a little, though you are still losing altitude.
You have spent 75 mana, and have 79 remaining.
>>769
You compliment Ao Oni on his dramatic entrance. He seems indifferent.
Your possession will expire in a matter of seconds, at which point you will be left at the mercy of a large angry blue demon. Perhaps you should do something in advance.
Summon a vortex between TiMothy and Ao Oni to push him down and us up.
>>771
Noting that the masses of both parties are well into the hundreds of kilograms, you realise that you will need quite a substantial vortex to separate Ao Oni and TiMothy. Feeling keenly the urgency of the situation, you summon a nine metre vortex, with a horizontal axis of rotation, about your current position. This leaves you only 25 mana remaining.
Ao Oni stumbles forwards and to one side, thrown aside by his own simultaneous face punching, while TiMothy struggles - and fails - to account for the sudden change in the local airflow field. You find your mount suddenly pitching upwards, before dropping vertically through the air like a stalling aircraft. You maintain a tight grip around TiMothy's metathorax, just behind its hind legs. Ao Oni, meanwhile, slides unhindered down the left wing, catching onto the edge at the last moment. He glares helplessly at you, then, with one last fist to the chin and an inhuman cry, loses grip and disappears into the bottomless abyss.
Now unburdened, TiMothy resumes its normal flight, with lower frequency, less strained flapping. You breathe a long pent up sigh of relief.
>>772
Now, at last, you can focus on your introspection without any distractions or things trying to kill you. You switch off your torch, sheathe your ceremonial knife in a slot in your armour, lie down on TiMothy's ample back and let yourself be lost in the regular sound of the beating of its wings. Much time passes in this fashion, completely oblivious of your surroundings or eventual destination.
You slowly begin to come to some conclusions about recent and future events. Firstly, you are quite certain now that the endless night and reanimating corpses are a direct result of your failure to perform the daily christmas ritual for the last few days. Whatever deity was receiving your sacrifices - and, for that matter, those from Theodore's alternate church - has gone without sacrifices for at least four or five days now. Theodore has been kidnapped and, more likely than not, killed by Continue-chan, making you currently the only person who knows the ritual and is able to practice it. Or you would be, if you had a sacrifice.
You spend some time trying to work out what Ariadne, Conundrum-chan and Stove Stove could possibly be plotting, and why they were looking for Jacks, but the answer to that particular problem exists outside of yourself, not inside. Similarly, you make no progress on the disappearances of Aaron and Alexei, other than the obvious conclusion that they were probably both spirited away by the same force.
Most importantly, however, you conclude that your current conduct is clearly unsustainable. You need to either abandon your ambling and return to your post of High Priestess with renewed vigour, or actively try to weaken and work against whatever deity you have been worshipping. The recent unnatural happenings, along with Jacqueline's death, are your legacy, and you need to take responsibility one way or the other.
Satisfied for now, you slowly return to reality. You find yourself in pitch darkness, still hugging TiMothy's back. You can hear the sound of ocean waves breaking, but somewhat muffled and echoing as in an enclosed space. There is a strong smell of salt on the breeze. By torchlight, you are revealed to be near the mouth of a large, natural littoral cave. Behind you, it extends beyond the range of your torch, and in front of you it opens up into the open. It is a starless night. Beneath you, sea foam is thrown wildly by waves crashing violently amongst the jagged rocks and boulders. You and TiMothy are on a narrow, scree covered ledge along the right hand side of the cave. TiMothy appears to be asleep.
Follow the scree to the mouth of the cave. Poke our head out and look left, right, and up.
Walk in the one direction we did not look towards.
>>774
Cautiously, you edge along the ledge towards the cave mouth, sending countless small stones cascading down into the maelström below in the process. You reach the exit of the cave, and sweep your torch beam around to investigate your surroundings. To the left, you can just make out the curve of the opposite side of the cave mouth, but everything beyond that is in complete darkness. To the right, you can see in the distance the yellowish orange illumination of what is presumably a forest fire. Above and slightly to the left of this, silhouetting a sweeping mountain ridge, there is a faint blue glow reflected off the stratiform clouds above. Looking up, you can see nothing but the inky black sky.
>>775
There are technically an infinite number of directions you haven't looked towards, but you know for a fact you have not looked towards One Direction. Their precipitous rise to fame, their string of number one debuts, Malik's surprise departure from the group, and their announced year's hiatus have all sailed past your notice unseen. You cannot simply walk into their midst, as they are nowhere to be seen, and are to your knowledge exclusively a boy band. Nonetheless, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and if you are to walk in any direction - including potentially that of One Direction - you need to step out from the cave.
You bravely take a single step forwards, thereby narrowly avoiding the barbed proboscis simultaneously thrust in the direction of your upper spine. It seems that TiMothy was in fact only pretending to be asleep, and in fact sneakily awaiting another stab at your cerebrospinal fluid.
Spinebuster our lepidopterous pal.
>>777
You turn to face TiMothy. He is standing partially on the cave wall, partially on the scree, wings folded, proboscis extended. You feel an overwhelming rage consume you. How dare he betray you like that‽ After all you've been through, after you saved him from the blue menace, after he kindly watched over you during your long search for answers, how could he now so literally try to stab you in the back? Your hands itch to administer some corporal punishment to this disobedient arthropod.
At that moment, however, your throat turns dry and your hands freeze in midair, as the realisation dawns on you that TiMothy is an invertebrate. He is spineless - not in the sense of being a coward, but of having no bustable spine of any description. What do you do now? Bust his tergum? Lacking your hesitation, TiMothy thrusts his proboscis towards your neck again. You narrowly dodge backwards, but in the process are thrown off balance and land on your back. The cold, wet stones dig into your lower body, but there is nothing but open space under your shoulders and head. Waves crash far below you, deafening despite the distance.
The moth's vast, inhuman face looms into your vision. The proboscis extends again, quicker this time - you only barely have time to bat it out of the way with your torch. You try to crawl inwards, under TiMothy, but he pins you down with a foreleg on your stomach. Just as you think it is all over, there is a flash of movement, a dull thump, and TiMothy pauses then slumps to one side, with a large hypodermic needle sticking out just behind his chaetosemata. A human face appears in your torchlight from the left, somehow even more horrifying than the monster she replaces.
It is Jacqueline. She is wearing the same pink dress as ever, hair on either side in immaculate ringlets, with a length of white bandaging covering both eyes. A warm smile spreads between her rosy cheeks, and she looks altogether in perfect health; better than when you last saw her, certainly. Though you know that the dead have been returning to plague the living recently, she is quite obviously not undead. You also note there are no marks on her wrists - which are exposed - either from being strapped to the operating table or from being injected.
Still smiling, she extends a hand, offering to help you back to your feet.
Take Jacqueline's hand and give her a thank you kiss.
>>779
Apprehensive but grateful, you take her hand and let her pull you up from the cliff edge. Her hand certainly feels like real, warm flesh and blood. Just for further confirmation, you lean in and peck her on the cheek. Her smile takes on a slightly awkward quality, but otherwise she make no response. Still oddly disturbed by this whole affair, a worrisome thought drifts into your mind: didn't the others mention being trapped in a simulation featuring people they thought to be dead? Given how little attention you were paying during your recent sojourn into your own mind, is it not possible that you too have been smuggled into just such a false reality? Rather, doesn't Jacqueline's otherwise inexplicable presence almost guarantee it?
As though knowing what you're thinking, Jacqueline gently but firmly grasps your hand and begins to pull you along the cliff edge, out of the cave and away towards the right. You spare one last glance back at TiMothy's supine form, before being pulled around the corner and out of sight.
Shout "Surprise!"
Be Jacqueline. Turn on the lights.
As Jacqueline, recall the most recent events leading up to this point.
>>781
Damn that cool, unperturbable façade she maintains! Why can't Jacqueline just act like a self-destructive bundle of fear and existential angst like you? You feel the need to put her in her place, to crack that mask she wears once and for all, and to prove that she is victim to fears and weaknesses just like you. You take a deep breath, carefully position your mouth just behind her right ear, and give one explosive shout of "Surprise!".
Without a sound, Jacqueline flinches away, trips, and falls, twisting in the air, over the cliff edge and towards the cold, dark, violent waters below. Now is your last chance. If you are to avoid killing Jacqueline twice, all you have to do is reach out and catch her arm before she is gone. But will you? Do you really trust her? And if not, does your distrust alone justify coldblooded murder?
>>782
You are now playing as Jacqueline Conundra.
You cannot find any light switches nearby. You suspect there are lights in the ceiling, but you cannot see because you have no eyes.
>>783
You and Alexei made a strategic retreat from the dreaded Continue-chan back at >>675, leaving all the other main characters to stand and fight (and probably die) or sensibly follow your lead. No one followed you, however, as far as you know. The two of you ended up in a lava cave with a mechanical freight lift in the centre, of all things. After briefly investigating a suspicious bloodstain on the cave floor, you both ascended the lift, finding yourselves in some sort of machinery storeroom. After some time spent scouting out the area and searching for anything useful, the two of you moved on.
There was a larger lift leading to the surface, but, wary of the frightful sounds coming from above and preferring to remain unseen, the two of you instead chose to keep to a set of unlit service tunnels. You spent some time wandering, but encountered no sign of anybody else. Eventually you reached a junction in the tunnel with a ladder leading to the surface. Alexei commented that the equipment on a rack on the wall looked useful, then vanished without a trace. You could find no sign of him down either tunnel nor in the direction of the ladder.
You spent some time searching the vicinity, but found not a single trace of your beloved Alexei. Hence, you wrote a polite letter and began to extended the search further afield, hoping to solicit others to join the search. You were elated to happen across Jack Aaronova, politely inviting her to join the search. Instead, she horribly tortured and killed you, for no reason you can discern, other than being a dangerous psychopath.
You now find yourself, recently reawakened, on the floor of the same room. You are no longer breathing, and do not feel yourself giving off body heat, strongly suggesting you have joined the ranks of the undead. Unlike the hordes of grunts, however, you retain your full mental faculties. Via your echolocation, you are aware of the presence nearby of the table you were strapped to, a discarded syringe, the stick of chalk you had earlier, and a piece of paper which is presumably the letter you wrote.
You must find Alexei at all costs. He's not safe with that Aaronova girl on the loose.
be grill
wear dress
do grill things
Regret
Be Jack. SAVE HER
grind our teeth
>>785,786
You cannot stop thinking about Alexei. Why did you let him disappear? Why weren't you paying more attention? A wave of remorse washes over you. You repent in the only way you know how to. Still wearing your dress, you crouch on all fours and become a grill. Suppressing everything else in your mind, you picture yourself vividly as a fixed set of metal bars suspended above a brazier, ready for cooking meat or vegetables. Though you lie unused and ignored now, some sunny day you will brought forth for a grand barbecue: it is inevitable. Until that day, you must wait patiently and obediently, like a good grill.
You fight back the tears. Grills don't cry, you remind yourself. Crying is not something grills do.
>>787
You are now playing as Jack Conundrum-chan.
After hours of hours of trekking through the jungle, avoiding the wandering undead, shower of meteorite impacts, and the subsequent forest fires, your party - comprising yourself, Ariadne, Stove Stove, the mysterious unnamed androgynous person, and about fifty Jacks - have arrived at where you believe Continue-chan to have taken Theodore. It is a small, squat two story red brick building. The light from the small flame you have summoned between your fingers doesn't penetrate much past the doorway. Ariadne alone in your party appears to recognise the place, and happily strolls in, lost in a nostalgic reverie.
That fool! Doesn't she know the danger she's in‽ You rush in to rescue her, grabbing her firmly by one hand and pulling her back outside. From what you saw of the inside of the building, it's an empty room, with a stairwell leading up and down. The stairs upwards were blocked with piled up furniture. You passingly noted a strange scratchy, almost unrecognisable engraving on the wall, of a human figure with something bulbous sticking out of their face. You aren't sure what to make of it.
>>788
You grind your teeth in frustration. Rescuing Theodore is, needless to say, pivotal to your plan, however at present you don't even know if he's still alive or not. You think Continue-chan must be here, based on the tracks you followed through the jungle to get here, but there's no sign of her or Theodore now. The stairs down to the basement seem the obvious place to start, but something about them give you a bad feeling.
Wait. It's dangerous to go inside. Guard the exit.
Pretend to be a door and slowly work your way inside using this disguise.
be mysterious unnamed androgynous person.
set building on fire.
>>790
Yes, you admonish Ariadne in a stern whisper, it's far too dangerous to go inside just like that. Instead, you must closely guard the building - part reconnaissance, part siege warfare - so as to have the greatest advantage over the enemy before your attack. You order the Jacks to encircle the building, while you, Ariadne, Stove Stove and the androgynous person stay near the doorway. After fifteen minutes, absolutely nothing has happened, and you notice with disappointment that the Jacks are getting distracted, clustering into small groups and giggling to themselves adorably.
>>791
You had hoped it wouldn't come to this, but there is no other choice. You inhale sharply, straighten your spine, and stick all of your limbs out to form the vertices of a rectangle. You carefully position yourself in the doorway. Of course, with your complete shapeshifting (active skill) ability, you could actually literally become a door, but therein lies the true genius of your plan: you want Continue-chan to know that you aren't a door, and you want her to believe that you believe that she doesn't know you aren't a door - that way she'll misunderestimate you, enabling you to rescue Theodore all the more easily. It's foolproof!
Step by step, you edge further in, making wooden creaking noises with your mouth the whole time. As you take the first step down the staircase, however, your foot catches on a maliciously placed tripwire, and you are unable to prevent yourself from plummeting to the bottom. You come to a stop in a painful heap on the hard stone floor. You cannot see anything in the thick, heavy darkness. From further into the room comes a slow scraping noise and a foul smell. You begin to scramble to your feet, trying to reassume your disguise. At that moment, however, you hear from outside a low rumbling and a loud, high pitched scream. It sounds like Ariadne.
oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck
thin out the darkness with fire
>>794
You mutter obscenities to yourself in a decidedly undoorlike fashion. Ariadne's scream cuts off abruptly.
>>795
You hurl one or two centimetre diameter fireballs in every direction, banishing the darkness to small, flickering shadows in the corners of the room. Your location is revealed to be a high ceilinged octagonal room - approximately twenty metres in diameter - with a circular raised dais in its centre. Continue-chan lurks on the opposite side of the dais, tentacles quivering slightly. There is what appears to be a beartrap embedded in her lower body, with a viscous black fluid seeping from the wounds.
The raised dais is covered in intricate, overlapping circles drawn in red chalk. In the centre lies Theodore, on his back, eyes closed. Around the dais are six wrought iron chest height candlesticks, without any candles in them. There is a sword hanging by a string from the ceiling, swinging back and forth in long, lazy arcs, like a pendulum. There are unrecognisable piles of objects in the corners of the room, but before you can inspect them closely the fireballs disperse against the walls and you are plunged again into the interminable, omnipresent darkness.
Continue-chan shrieks in anger, and you hear a slithering, scraping noise as she begins to move towards you.
Wait, Continue-chan! I love you!
>>797
"Wait, Continue-chan!" You plead to the darkness, "I love you!" The darkness stops scraping and shrieking momentarily, leaving an eerie silence. You aren't sure what response you were expecting, but the absence of any response is rather troubling. Why did you say that? Did you mean it? I mean, you did, perhaps, have confusing feelings for her long ago, but so much time has passed and you've both changed so much. Surely, it must be impossible now...
At that moment, there is a sound of several large objects falling down the stairs from behind you. You are too slow to react, and are struck in the back by multiple warm, pointy, giggling bodies. It seems that some of the Jacks followed you in and fell down the stairs, just like you.
Things are not going to plan, but, you remind yourself sternly, you mustn't lose sight of your goal. All that matters now is that you can rescue Theodore and get out. You can't let your feelings for Continue-chan get in the way.
Run towards Theodore and pick him up. Light the way with FIRE.
Light your hair on fire.
Fantasize about pepper. Pepper tastes great.
If you can find it in your heart to forgive me, I can forgive you. Let's put the past behind us and build a new life together.
Be Theodore and get the fuck outta here
>>802
Your mind wanders. You think about how long it's been since you had any decent food, rather than just whatever you can scavenge from your immediate surroundings. You remember the simple pleasure of seasoning; that little nutritionally superfluous touch that bounces like a spark from your palate. You recall with a mix of longing and nostalgia the satisfying grind of the pepper mill. Perhaps, you wonder, in all this clandestine plotting and scheming, have you lost sight of what really matters? The little touches and garnishes add up, and their absence forms an almost tangible hole in your life.
>>803
You snap back to reality. It's been about thirty seconds since either of you spoke, but it feels like far longer. You have to say something, anything! Cliché platitudes and empty promises cascade from your mouth. Are you just trying to bribe Continue-chan's placidity with emotional capital? Or is this what you always wanted to say, but cannot express on the spot in anything more meaningful? You are too busy desperately promising the world for any sort of introspection or second guessing.
>>804
You require Cat possession (passive skill) to play as Theodore.
This is too much for you. The twitching shadows of the countless instruments of pain and murder around the edges of the room - dancing in the light of your own burning hair - seem to swell and crowd around you, claustrophobic and accusatory, until you are on the verge of hyperventilating. Continue-chan lifts her head and stares into you with cold, dead eyes. She begins to speak - nothing more than your name - but that alone overwhelms your self discipline. You turn and sprint away, over the Jacks, up the stairs, past the tripwire, out the doorway and into the cool, refreshing night air. There is no sign of Ariadne, the androgynous person or the many Jacks.
There is a deafening crash from above and behind you, and you narrowly avoid a shower of dust and falling bricks and masonry. A long, thin appendage swipes just over your head. Tracing it back, you find it to be the tail of a certain familiar brontosaurus. There's something not right about this, though; why would the ever indifferent herbivorous Rupert be violently attempting to demolish an innocent building?
Looking closer, you see many long, thin lacerations on his flank and neck, trailing equally enormous bloodstains. Some are metres in length and tens of centimetres deep - you cannot imagine what could be capable of inflicting wounds like that. It dawns on you that not even a brontosaurus could survive such devastating injuries. Rupert was killed, and reanimated by whatever evil force has reanimated everything else that has died in this place, converting him into the hellbent instrument of war he is now.
Theodore, still cradled in your arms, begins to stir. If you are to continue with the plan, you need to either somehow gain level two ailuromancy, or find someone who already has - namely, Jack Aaronova.
Search the building for Jack
>>806
What with all your former allies having vanished and the murderous undead sauropod outside, you decide it might just be prudent to consider your indoor options a little more closely before continuing. You return through the doorway and commence the search. The main room is completely empty and Jackless. Looking down the staircase, you can see the pile of Jacks at the bottom where they fell on you earlier, but you already knew about them.
The staircase leading upwards is filled with furniture piled into a crude barricade. It takes you about a minute to climb over, during which time you hear Rupert strike the building several more times. As you turn the top of the stairwell, you momentarily catch sight of some sort of large unidentifiable machine before there is a flash of light and you find yourself somewhere else entirely.
Well, perhaps not entirely. You are now on the flat roof of the building, along with Ariadne, the androgynous person, most of the Jacks, and Stove Stove, who has just kindly teleported you up here. Ariadne is currently telling Rupert that he's being a very bad boy and he needs to stop that silly behaviour right now. He doesn't seem to have noticed - and you hope he doesn't; considering the length of his neck, he could almost certainly reach you all up here.
Well, at any rate, you think to yourself while looking at the many identical girls standing around the rooftop, at least your search has been successful in a sense. Jacks, Jacks, everywhere, but not a drop of Aaronova.
Be Stove Stove. Make toast.
Be Ariadne. Stop talking to Rupert and eat toast.
>>808
You are now playing as Stove Stove.
You are aware that it is customary at social celebrations, such as weddings, to make a toast. In recognition of the joyous reunion of Conundrum-chan and Ariadne, you make a brief speech. Of course, lacking any means of vocalisation, you express yourself by rocking back and forth gently and spinning around on one vertex. You hope the message gets across.
You are now playing as Ariadne Aaronova.
With a sigh, you acknowledge that Rupert clearly isn't willing to listen to reason. You've simply no idea what's gotten into him! Were he a nice, reasonable person, you'd love to sit down with him over some nice, crispy toast with marmalade and a strong cup of tea, but there's no toast to be found here, and also he's a brontosaurus, not a person.
Conundrum-chan - who's just appeared here - joins you near the edge of the roof and begins trying to ask you something about Theodore, but at that moment Rupert sweeps his colossal tail across the roof of the building. As you are facing the right way, you see it coming and manage to duck in time, but Conundrum-chan is not so lucky, and is struck in the back of the shoulders and knocked off of the building altogether, disappearing into the thick, black jungle below. Theodore falls from her grasp and similarly vanishes.
Show off our intelligence and grace. Save Jack.
>>810
"No!" you exclaim, involuntary, watching as though in slow motion as your beloved Conundrum-chan flies off the roof on a long, unstoppable trajectory, already well out of your arms' reach. Despair settles on you like an alluvial deposit. But it is at times like this that we learn what we are truly capable of, you remind yourself, launching yourself recklessly from the building after Jack, grabbing her hand from behind - of course, you both have levitation (passive skill), so she was never in any real danger from falling - and landing softly on the floor at the base of the building.
You place one hand lightly on the nearby wall and, using your stone morphing (active skill), convert one kilogram of brickwork into a very long thin chain with a handle at one end, setting you back by twenty mana. You use your stone sharpening (active skill) to sharpen the end - unfortunately, you can only spare enough for the last thirty centimetres - to a steel-like keenness, costing another thirty mana. Finally, you spend your remaining twenty mana casting advanced rock animation (active skill) on your newly crafted qilinbian. Conundrum-chan, clinging to your arm, chuckles conspiratorially on seeing the weapon.
"Rupert, heel!" you command sternly. As you hoped, he hears and targets you. His enormous head looms over you, maw gaping and ready to consume you both. You are too quick, however. With a loud crack, your whip bursts from your hand and, responding to your will, wraps around Rupert's neck and constricts tightly. With an anticlimactic slicing noise - like cutting through a tomato - the reanimated Rupert is decapitated. His severed head falls to your feet, and his body collapses unsupported just behind it.
Conundrum-chan hugs you and sings your praises until you blush. Trying to deflect attention, you remind her that you had best act quickly, as Rupert's head and body will probably reanimate before long, your qilinbian will only remain animated for another thirty seconds or so, and Theodore - whom you came all this way for - is now missing.
Everyone: spread out to find Theodore, yielding only in cases of extreme self-preservation.
>>812
Stove Stove kindly teleports everyone remaining on the roof down to terra firma, and you take initiative, ordering them all to spread out and search in an orderly manner. The best-laid schemes of mice and cute girls often go askew, however. Firstly, Continue-chan appears at the doorway, supported on both sides by Jacks, and shouts that you all have to leave right now, as it's too dangerous. You reply that it's okay, you've already put Rupert in his place, and now you just have to find Theodore and all will be well.
"No, you don't underst--" she begins, before being interrupted by the androgynous person rushing in and expressing relief at having found her at last. On cue, several more Jacks gather around and embrace her tightly from all sides, much to her distress. Meanwhile, Conundrum-chan begins saying something about getting on with searching for Theodore before he gets too far away. The whole situation is a quagmire of disagreement, conflicting objectives and involuntary cuddling. You'll need some impressive tact and diplomacy if you're to bend everyone to your will.
>>814
Ah shit, wrong thread. I'm really sorry. I wasn't trying to be funny.
Give the following speech:
"Continue-chan, Conundrum-chan, Stove Stove, Jacks, brothers and sisters, friends and enemies: The question tonight, as I understand it, is "The Undead Revolt, and Where Do We Go From Here?" or What Next?" In my little humble way of understanding it, it points toward either the cat or the bullet.
Before I explain what is meant by the cat or the bullet, I would like to clarify something concerning myself: I'm a powerful deity. That's my personal belief. Just as Aaron Aaronovitch Aaronov is a father who cowardly bumbles about meaninglessly, but at the same time takes part in the life-and-death struggles to try and bring about peace to this godforsaken world; and Dr. Alexei is a brilliant scientist, whereabouts unknown, who heads another organization fighting for Truth; well, I myself am a powerful jokestress, not a scientist, nor a father, but a playful goddess; and I believe in action on all fronts by whatever means necessary.
If we don't do something real soon, I think you'll have to agree that we're going to be forced either to use the cat or the bullet. It's one or the other in these apocalyptic times. Find that cat or be forced to destroy everything. It isn't that time is running out -- time has run out!
And this time it's not going like it went last time. We're not going singing ''We Shall Overcome." We're not going with friends. We're going with grim comrades. We're not going with round-trip tickets. We're going with one way tickets. And if you don't want us going down there, we'd better find that fucking cat.
The undead aren't going to wait. If we wait too long, brothers and sisters, we will be responsible for letting a condition develop in this world which will create a climate that will kill us if we don't destroy it. It's the cat or the bullet."
>>814,815
You take a deep breath, cautioning yourself not to get caught up in any idle mischief or posturing, and to be totally sincere and sober in the speech you are about to give.
>>816
"Continue-ch--" you begin, before immediately being interrupted by the lady in question. "Dammit, listen to me! Conundrum-chan, you believe me, right? You have to go, right now!" She screams in frustration and, for the second time, metamorphoses into a hideous bulging fleshy mass covered in groping tentacles. She attempts to struggle free from the Jacks, without much success.
You try again. "Continue-chan, Conundrum-chan, Stove Stove, Jacks, brothers and sisters, friends and enemies: The question tonight, as I understand it, is Th--" There is a loud flash and a bright blue bang from the upper storey of the building you just left. A black, humanoid shape bursts from the nearest window, landing in a crouch, turning and pointing a long, thin, sleek matte steel weapon of some sort squarely at Continue-chan. By the light of Conundrum-chan's inexplicably burning hair you recognise him: it's Alexei!
As though trying to upstage you, he begins a speech of his own, addressing the tentacle monster. "Listen here, you ungodly monstrosity, do you know what I'm holding here? It's an antimatter tipped railgun. Yes, antimatter. Do you have any idea how hard it was to generate and isolate the stuff - let alone build a Penning trap for it that doesn't interact with the railgun firing mechanism? Well, I did it: I created this thing for the sole purpose of annihilating you. But before I do, I want you to know that this is your fault; you threatened and tried to kill my friends, and my wife. And for this... you must die."
Punctuating the dramatic pause, another dark silhouette falls gracelessly from the window, slowly picks itself up from the ground and vomits profusely. It appears to be Aaron. You clear your throat, politely thank Alexei for his input, and persuade him to maintain a brief ceasefire, at least until you've finished delivering your speech.
"As I was saying," you continue, "The question tonight, as I understand it, is The Undead Revolt, and Where Do We Go From Here? or What Next? In my little humble way of understanding it, it points toward either the cat or the b--" There is a feline yowling from behind you. A small, lithe shape sprints from the undergrowth, pounces onto Aaron and begins clawing at him, hissing and screeching the whole time. Alas, it is not Theodore, but Jimmy.
"...Or the bullet. Before I explain what is meant by the cat or the bullet, I would like to clarify something concerning myself: I'm a powerful deity. That's my personal belief. Just as Aaron Aaronovitch Aaronov" - you nod in his direction - "Is a father who cowardly bumbles about meaninglessly, but at the same time takes part in the life-and-death struggles to try and bring about peace to this godforsaken world; and Dr. Alexei" - another nod - "Is a brilliant scientist, who heads another organization fighting for Truth; well, I myself am a p--"
You are interrupted yet again, this time by an enormous flying shape in the sky. It flutters intermittently, uncertainly, circles your position a few times and then glides down and lands on the side of the building, wings flat. It appears to be some sort of gigantic moth. Another familiar face slides down the creature's back and joins the audience: it's Jack Aaronova! Showing similar disregard for your monologue, she addresses you all:
"Listen to me! None of this is real! You're all inside another simulation, I have proof!" She rushes over to you and demands to know how you managed to exit the simulation when you were in it before. Lacking the patience to entertain her ridiculous brain-in-a-vat style musings, you reply condescendingly that you'll tell her all about it, just as soon as you're finished your speech.
"I am a powerful jokestress, not a scientist, nor a father, but a playful goddess; and I believe in action on all fronts by whatever means necessary. If we don't do something real soon, I think you'll have to agree that we're going to be forced either to use the cat or the bullet. It's one or the other in these apocalyptic times. Find that cat or be forced to destroy everything. It isn't that time is running out - time has run out! And this time it's not g--"
Despite no particular sound, everyone is distracted and looking at something behind you. Sighing in frustration, you turn to see Jacqueline coming up the hill. She looks to be in rather poor shape. Alexei rushes over to her, muttering to her urgently. You cannot hear what he's saying from here. Never mind. You'll see this soliloquy through to the end even if it kills you.
"This time it's not going like it went last time. We're not going singing We Shall Overcome. We're not going with friends. We're going with grim comrades. We're not going with round-trip tickets. We're going with one way tickets. And if you don't want us going down there, we'd better find that fucking cat. The undead aren't going to wait. If we wait too long, brothers and sisters, we will be responsible for letting a condition develop in this world which will create a climate that will kill us if we don't destroy it. It's the cat or th--"
Something nuzzles against your leg. You look down, only to see Theodore looking back up at you innocently. "That's him!" exclaims Conundrum-chan excitedly, "And we have Jack Aaronova as well - now we can celebrate Christmas!"
Decorate a Christmas tree
Be Jack.
Deck the halls with bowels, if you know what I mean.
^^^^ (Jack Aaronova)
>>819
Swallowing some internal frustration, you set about helping prepare for Christmas. Using your qilinbian, you cut down an appropriate looking tree with a long, flat trunk, which should do as a substitute altar. You decorate it with one of the disposable cloned Jacks, who is wearing a rather lovely pink and white chequered dress. She smiles innocently, showing no fear or comprehension of her impending doom.
You had until now sought Theodore as only he and Jack Aaronova knew the correct Christmas ritual, with which you could put a stop to the recent unholy happenings. You had of course found Jack Aaronova back at >>720, before you settled on this plan, when you were just looking for Jacks to slaughter for skill points and mana. You subsequently had great difficulty finding her again, and so instead focussed on the more easily locatable Theodore (whom you knew to be in the possession of Continue-chan). Now that you have both of them, and a suitable sacrifice decorating the tree, there's nothing to stop you celebrating Christmas.
>>820,821
You are now playing as Jack Aaronova.
This is your moment. You are the high priestess, and it's Christmas time. Brandishing your trusty ceremonial stone knife, you begin to dance around the tree, singing "I've got a brand new pair of rollerskates, you've got a brand new key, I think that we should get together and try them on to see!" before plunging the knife up to the hilt into the sacrificial Jack's heart. Her life is extinguished instantly. With a twist, you pull the blade back out, run it across your lips and kiss her good night. Then you hack her head off and let it be consumed by the infinite void between your legs.
For killing a sapient being in a ritualistic manner, you have gained two skill points and one hundred mana.
There is a slow, prolonged silence. Rupert's headless corpse twitches, shudders and begins to rise to its feet. Everyone backs away, before noticing something extraordinary: to the east, the sky is becoming visibly lighter. In the space of a few seconds, the sun breaks over the mountain ridge and shoots up into the sky, returning to its rightful position in the heavens. You all stare, enraptured by the aching, cloudless blueness above, not even watching as Rupert's body collapses back to the ground.
Living or undead; man, woman or tentacle monster; you all gather around the warmth of Conundrum-chan's burning hair and rejoice in your simple continued existence. Nothing could possibly ruin such a beautiful moment as this, you think to yourself.
Merry Christmas. God bless us, everyone. Good night to all, and to all a good night.
Put skill points into Aerokinesis, I have the feeling this isn't over.
>>823
You smile into the distance. What a pleasant Christmas this has been. You express your boundless gratitude towards the infinite pantheons of named and nameless gods, at least one of whom has blessed you with light and safety in return for your Christmas offering, and also take the opportunity to offer your hope that the abnormally long night has not been too disagreeable for anyone present.
At the same time, you are aware that all is not by any means back to normal. Perhaps most immediately troublingly, you saw how Alexei reacted to Continue-chan's even attempted attack upon Jacqueline; how would he react if he knew what you did to her?
You place two skill points into aerokinesis, unlocking the following skills:
You hear a loud grinding, scraping noise of metal against stone from within the building. All of you turn to face the entrance. Continue-chan shrieks and struggles to free herself with even greater desperation than before. She almost makes it free, before a vast torrent of metal implements tears up the stairs and out of the doorway, through her and the Jacks restraining her, and into the centre of the clearing in front of you all. It morphs into a vaguely humanoid shape and comes to a halt. You can see it is composed almost entirely of blades, weapons and general implements of murder and destruction. Barring some bloodstained surfaces near the head, the whole mass gleams brilliantly in the sunlight.
You feel a tug at your pockets. The torch you picked up at >>737,738 along with the screws and butterfly hinges from >>745,748 tear free from you and join the mass. They are quickly joined by a pen from Conundrum-chan's pocket, a nail file from behind Aaron's ear and the antimatter railgun from Alexei's grasp.
Just as suddenly as it appeared, the metallic humanoid disassembles and flows away into the jungle, leaving behind a trail of torn down trees and a shocked silence. Looking in its wake, all that remains of Continue-chan and the Jacks around her is a smear of finely cut pieces of flesh and gore, none more than a few centimetres across. They are quite obviously and irrevocably dead.
Follow the trail of torn down trees
Eat the dead pieces of Jack.
>>825
Without a word, you straighten your shoulders and begin walking after the monstrosity, seeking answers no matter the cost. You make it only a few steps before Ariadne appears in front of you, arms crossed, with an expression on her face somewhere between concern and anger.
"Jack, stop. Just stop. I know what you want to do, but this isn't the way. You've played the lone wolf long enough. We... we need you, Jack; we need everyone we can get. We will get that... thing that killed Continue-chan, somehow, but not until we're properly prepared. So please, Jack, come back to us?" She extends a hand in sororal comradeship. Reluctantly, realising that she'll just follow you and bother you the whole way otherwise, you take her hand and turn back. "They don't call you The Pontiff for nothing!" Conundrum-chan says to Ariadne with a smug smirk.
>>826
Well, you may comply for now, but you don't have to be civil about it. That Jack Conundrum-chan really is quite insufferable, and the overly intimate way she addresses your sister makes you want to grind your teeth. Well, you'll show her! You take her head in both hands and begin to lick her face and neck, lapping up all the dead bits of skin and dust on her. She accepts this turn of events with impressive calm and coolness.
Meanwhile, you, Conundrum-chan, Ariadne, the androgynous person, Stove Stove, Jacqueline and Alexei form a circle, while Aaron heads inside, and the remaining Jacks play amongst themselves. Alexei stands and speaks. "Aaron and I just arrived here from the Control Tower. Jacqueline brought us there a few days ago, and it's full of supplies, tools, weapons and everything else we could possibly need. We should all regroup there. Aaron is just going inside to check on the teletransporter; hopefully it's still all right. Even if it is, however, there's only substrates prepared at the other end for Aaron, Jacqueline and I, so the rest of you would have to take the long way around."
Ariadne helpfully observes that the giant moth should be able to take at least some of you - but you certainly can't bring all the Jacks that way. Alternatively, you could try trekking over the ridge (which would be slow, and you might not make it before nightfall) or going via the underground service tunnels (which would be quicker, but possibly dangerous). If you really want to go to the Control Tower at all, that is.
Aaron calls from the upstairs window that the teletransporter is working fine, and Alexei begins to head inside. Jacqueline hangs back, shoots you a meaningful glance, then follows. For whatever reason, it seems that she has not told Alexei what you did to her. You are grateful, but apprehensive. A few seconds later there is a blue flash from upstairs and they are gone.
You notice smoke rising from the horizon to the north.
Form a party with Conundrum, Ariadne and a Jack-clone (for later sacrifice, if needed.) Fly on TiMothy to the Control Tower. If we're too heavy, use wind powers to assist its flight.