poop
>>664
Tearing away the fourth wall like tissue paper, you turn to face the reader and tell them that at the end of a long, tiring day of murder and evil, you like nothing better than a cool, refreshing bottle of Tentacle Grape brand soda. The sensation of that sugary purple elixir slipping deep inside you is second to none. You express hope that the reader will soon be joining you in the slimy, acetabuliferous grip of Tentacle Grape's customership, before pulling a bottle of the said substance from behind your back and taking a healthy swig. You exhale loudly, flash the reader a winning smile, and wink exaggeratedly.
The approaching undead tentacle monster, perhaps unappreciative of your disrespectful portrayal of her kind, grabs you by every limb, lifts you from the ground, dangles your head into her enormous toothy mouth, and bites down hard. Your neck is severed entirely.
GAME OVER
Deaths: 28
(Continuing from most recent saved game: >>663)
>>665
"All your base are belong to us!" you exclaim gleefully. This is not true. You don't know where the undead base(s) are, and you have no particular claim to any area of land that could even potentially fit the bill.
>>666
You can't find any cockerels here. The closest you know of is Reginald the red bird, who is currently - my god! He's perched on the box of dynamite that you left on top of a cloning pod to the southeast. That could be dangerous. Unfortunately, there's a lot of tentacles and badly burnt - but still animate and full of hatred for the living - undead separating you from him.
>>667
As Jack Aaronova's chest is shielded by her trilobite armour, you aren't particularly fond of Jacqueline, and the other girl has spontaneously turned into a tentacle monster, you settle for groping Jack Conundrum-chan's delightfully small, soft, delicate breasts. She squeals, wriggles free and says "Not now, Ariadne!" You suddenly come to your senses and realise that you've done something inappropriately intimate with Conundrum-chan again. You blush violently, realising with shame how much you've complicated your relationship with her once again.
Then again, she only said not now, not never... Perhaps...
>>668
You call upon the tentacle monster by name. She stops and looks straight at you (possibly; it's hard to tell when she doesn't have any eyes) for a few seconds, tentacles poised uncertainly in the air. "Now, while it's distracted!" Aaron shouts to Alexei, who is currently aiming his energy weapon squarely at Continue-chan. He squeezes the trigger and a few sparks spit feebly from the end, but nothing further happens.
"Dammit!" curses Alexei, grabbing Jacqueline's wrist and making a run for the northwest tunnel, apparently abandoning the rest of you to Masturbation's wrath. You and Conundrum-chan - but probably not the others - know that that tunnel ends in a magma pool, and is likely a dead end, unless the lift to Theodore's chamber above has another exit you don't know about.
>>669
Your parcopresis forbids it.
Apologize to Continue-chan.
Hand over the bottle of Tentacle Grape as a peace offering.
The only thing standing between you and a satisfying poop is this tentacle monster and all of these supposed allies.
It's simple, crush the head and spine of the girl at the center of the tentacle mass.
>>671
"I-I'm sorry, Continue-chan!" you stammer. You aren't sure what you're sorry for; she's the one trying to kill all of you, after all. She continues to hesitate where she is, tentacles aquiver. Jack Aaronova and Theodore are similarly frozen in place, not daring to take their eyes off her. Alexei and Jacqueline escape up the northwest tunnel and disappear from view. Aaron and Conundrum-chan alternate between staring at you expectantly and watching Continue-chan for signs of movement.
>>672
You find in your left hand a vaguely suggestively named carbonated beverage which you don't remember acquiring. You stare at it dumbly for a second. What is it? Where did it come from? Why is it in your hand? At any rate, the name seems portentous. You step forwards cautiously, holding it out in one hand. Continue-chan makes a high pitched wailing noise and smacks it violently from your hand with one swing of a tentacle. It flies across the room and shatters against the wall.
The same tentacle returns in a backswing and strikes you in the upper body. You are thrown aside to land, on your back, in the water between two pods. You are slightly winded, but only your pride is seriously hurt. Continue-chan, still screaming, advances towards Jack Aaronova. She, in turn, holds her ground, gripping her ceremonial knife readily.
>>674
Continue-chan's new physiology is a little confusing. The part with the mouth must be the head, you suppose, but there's no indication of other sensory organs, nor any visible separation from the rest of the body. You highly doubt that she's still a vertebrate, and, judging by the fluid pulsating motions of her central mass, doubt she has any skull to crush either. There doesn't seem to be girl at the centre, unless you mean in a metaphorical sense.
But now is no time for anatomical semantics! You charge in, swinging your stone hammer recklessly, hoping to crush something vital. Continue-chan doesn't even break her stride as she again knocks you aside with one tentacle. This time your head collides with a cloning pod, knocking you unconscious.
You awaken in Conundrum-chan's office. Conundrum-chan herself is standing over you, a concerned look on her face. Her countenance visibly lightens as she sees you're awake. Also in the room are Jack Aaronova, Theodore and Stove Stove - but, notably, neither Aaron nor Dr. Gay Hitler. There is a deafening banging on the door. Despite it being made of solid steel and an entire shelf having been moved and propped in front of it, it sounds ready to break down.
"T-there's only one way to atone for... it." mutters Jack Aaronova, almost ashamedly, half to herself. "Christmas." she adds solemnly.
Command Continue (or whoever else might be banging on the door) to halt in the name of Yoghurt-Sweettooth.
Sing merrily, "We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!"
pick nose
>>676
"In the name of Yoghurt-Sweettooth, I order thee to be still!" you shout in the general direction of the banging. The banging redoubles in intensity, and an unmistakeably Continue-like screech rises from the other side. The shelf leaning against the wall is now visibly shaking, and dust is falling from the ceiling. Shockingly, it seems even the elder god Sweettooth holds no dominion over her.
>>677
In the most irreverent manner imaginable, you sing facetiously about that darkest and most unspeakable of rituals: christmas. You even have the temerity to wish Jack a "happy new year", as though she has any chance of living to see the next year, or indeed has any chance of being happy ever again after having offended the gods. She stares at you, shocked into silence. A single tear traces its way down one of her cheeks.
>>678
After comparing the various olfactory organs present, you choose Conundrum-chan's nose as being the most appealing. I mean, technically, She and Jack Aaronova are clones, so their noses are identical and all, but Conundrum-chan's just has a certain je ne sais quoi about it that makes it so much more attractive. You sigh in longing at the sight of its gently rolling curves and graceful almond shaped nostrils.
You hear a vociferation from outside - a girl's voice. You can only barely make it out from over Continue-chan's continued assault, but something about the sound makes the hair on the back of your neck rise. Who is that?
The banging stops abruptly. There are a few splashes, followed by a long, ominous silence. Without consulting any of you, Conundrum-chan immediately begins shifting the shelf back out of the way, clearing the way to the door.
List party skills and status.
List laws and mores violated by the party up until this point.
List party's political affiliations.
>>680
Since your brush with amnesia, you have gained the following skills:
You have other skills, such as levitation, but you can't quite remember all of them. You have in your inventory nothing but a makeshift stone hammer with a sharpened hilt, and the frilly dress you are wearing. You have level eight geokinesis and seventy mana.
Jack Aaronova has the following skills:
She has in her inventory the tattered remains of a seifuku, a suit of plate armour made of trilobite carapace, an incredibly bloody ceremonial stone knife, five mushrooms of various different species, and four strips of smoked trilobite meat. She has level seven ailuromacy, three unspent skillpoints, and 260 mana.
Jack Conundrum-chan currently has far, far too many skills; more specifically:
She currently has in her inventory a well worn labcoat, a ball point pen, a bottle of water and a geologist's hammer. She has level twelve telekinesis, level nine pyromancy, level six healing, level five necromancy, level five thaumaturgy, level one matrimony, and three unspent skillpoints. She has zero mana.
Stove Stove currently has the following skills:
They have level eight telekinesis, level one matrimony and 99,729 mana.
And last but not least, Theodore currently has the following skills:
He has level one aerokinesis, level two hypnosis and 45 mana.
Jacqueline, Alexei, Dr. Gay Hitler, Rupert and Reginald are also potentially playable members of your party, but, as they aren't present, they've missed out on the skill/status checking fun.
>>681
You are all castaways in a wild and lawless land. There are no rules to break. You are not in Rome; you cannot do as the Romans do - nor, by extension, can you not do as the Romans do. You are the Romans now. Even the unspoken social norms, expectations and taboos are unsettled. Your very actions now are creating the laws which members of a future society may go on to break.
>>682
Apart from a few vaguely pacifist or bellicist sentiments, your society lacks the political framework to even have affiliations.
While you've been busy with your head in the clouds, Conundrum-chan has finished unbarricading the door. It swings open quietly to reveal Continue-chan, half on the raised walkway before the door and half in the water below, surrounded on all sides by roughly a hundred clones of Jack. They are all wearing rather fetching knee-length dresses of varying colours and styles, but are otherwise identical. They stand in a semicircle of twenty metre radius, centred on Continue-chan, with placid smiles on their faces. The tentacle monster in question is frozen in place - cornered, but far from defeated.
change political affiliation to Islamic State, declare ourself caliph
Be Jack Aaronova.
Put remaining skill points into Aerokinesis.
Sneak up behind Jack Conundrum, summon fog to cloak our sneak attack, then stab her in the back with the ceremonial stone knife repeatedly. Use new Aerokinesis skills to make a temporary retreat if the attack fails.
commit anal deification
Evil Hina? (Thinks of Hina evil) this song makes me think
>>687
There are no states - Islamic or otherwise - to swear allegiance to. You cannot become caliph without undergoing the proper shura process.
>>688
You are now playing as Jack Aaronova.
You increase your aerokinesis level to six, unlocking the following skills:
Having a single clone was a little disconcerting, but this crowd outside is simply a Jack too far. You feel like if you don't do something to cull the population then you'll lose all sense of identity. Though you harbour no particular ill will towards her, Conundrum-chan is the closest Jack, and seems an easy target, being distracted by the ruckus outside.
With a wave of your hand, a thick, damp fog suddenly precipitates out from thin air. It's thicker than you expected. To your dismay, your quarry utters a startled cry and, by the sounds of it, moves from where she was. You manage one solid thrust into where her back last was - stabbing only air - before being grasped around the midriff by a pair of tentacles and plucked from the room. The hunter has become the hunted! In a panic you summon some gusts of air, but Continue-chan's grip is unassailable. Between this and summoning the fog, you have spent 70 mana, leaving 190 remaining.
After a disconcerting transition, you find yourself suspended upside down over Continue-chan's open mouth. You see Conundrum-chan, Ariadne and Theodore rush out from the fog filled room. Another tentacle shoots out and ensnares Theodore, but the other two are spared. With a lurch, Continue-chan starts to the east, perhaps heading for the staircase to the surface.
At that moment, a loud cry comes from somewhere in the north, behind the Jacks - an unplaceable, vaguely androgynous voice - commanding: "Advance! Commence hugging!" The Jacks charge bravely, arms outstretched, eyes bright and mouths open in inarticulate expressions of delight. The tentacles throw back many, but for every Jack that falls two more step forth to try to wrap their arms around Continue-chan's central body. She is soon inundated, embraced tightly from every side, unable to do more than wave the tips of a few tentacles. She screeches in frustration.
A quick look around reveals that the others are not exempt from the onslaught of cuddles. Conundrum-chan and Ariadne are held in place by three Jacks each. Conundrum-chan looks vaguely uncomfortable. Ariadne tries to maintain her composure, but soon submits and hugs them back, eyes closed in warm ecstasy.
>>689
You say a silent prayer to the great anus in the sky, whoever, wherever and whatever it may be.
>>690
You begin to contemplate the moral state of a certain Kagiyama Hina, goddess of misfortune and resident of the Great Youkai Forest. Despite her ominous appearance, she is presented as an upstanding and morally good person, selflessly seeking to keep humans from bad luck. But what if your first impression were right, and she really is evil? I mean, she does fire quite a bit of danmaku at you without much warning (though that's standard fare for Gensokyo) and she does impede you from reaching your goal of the Moriya Shrine at the top of the mountain (though probably not knowingly). You slowly conclude that there isn't much evidence for the evil Hina theory.
Your musings are interrupted by a Jack wearing a cute stripy red dress climbing up to your position, pulling you - tentacle and all - down to the ground, and embracing you warmly. Several more join her and before you know it you too are incapacitated by the hugs.
Everyone: sing the hugging song, which goes like this:
Hug hug hug, hug hug hug.
Hug hug hug hug hug hug hug!
Hug hug hug, hug.
Hug? Hug.
Hug hug hug, hug hug hug.
I can't help but have a really bad feeling about this.
>>692
Succumbing to the gentle, welcoming sensation of skinship, you begin to sing the word "hug" over and over again. The Jacks eagerly join in, chanting along in a merry chorus, past the point of semantic satiation, until all you're doing is contorting your lips and flicking your tongue in a way that happens to make a noise. Continue-chan, meanwhile, is still struggling and screeching with increasing frustration.
>>693
You can't help but have a warm, fuzzy feeling about this. But under this lurks a vague sense of malaise. Perhaps it's to do with the fact that you can't move at all; even if you could persuade the Jacks hugging you to let go, Continue-chan's tentacle is still firmly gripping your abdomen. You'll need to employ some real cunning if you're to make it out of this one. Or maybe just stab everyone/thing with your stone knife. Whatever works.
Spend mana to heat the air around us by 80 Kelvin. Assuming our general vicinity is at room temperature (~293K) this should be enough to raise the air to boiling (373K). and thus make us too hot to hug or grip with tentacles. When the tentacles and Jack let go, go on a Jack-stabbing spree.
put all the skillpoints gained from the clone murdering spree into matrimony
Marry all the dead clones
>>695
Itching to try out your newfound aerokinesis powers, you turn the local volume of air into a nice toasty sauna. You thereby raise the air quite some way past its boiling point (which is roughly 77 kelvin) and successfully become ungraspable. There is an audible hiss from the water at your feet. Nearby Jacks wail in pain and surprise, while Continue-chan's screaming rises to an even higher volume and pitch. Tentacles and arms alike flinch away. You are, however, not immune to your own artifice, and are thrown off a little by the sudden flash of hot air on your skin. You have spent 160 mana, leaving 30 remaining.
You half dodge, half stumble northwards, only to trip over a fallen Jack and end up face down in the water. A tentacle lashes out towards you, but a Jack wearing a polka dot purple and white dress selflessly throws herself in its path, saving you. In recompense, you literally stab her in the back, along with two of her comrades. The nearby Jacks make distressed noises and stop trying to hug you, but don't let go of Continue-chan. The free tentacles continue to grasp for you relentlessly, but you manage to stay out of reach.
For killing three sapient beings in a ritualistic manner, you have gained three skillpoints and 150 mana.
>>696
Matrimony is not an available skill. Available skills are instead aerokinesis, geokinesis, biokinesis, hypnosis, technomancy and ailuromancy.
>>697
Despite your amorous advances, your dead potential fiancées stubbornly refuse to say the all-important "I do". You feel a little dejected.
The same voice which gave the order to advance comes again, from the northeast, this time commanding "Retreat! Retreat!". This poses somewhat of a problem. If the Jacks retreat, you will be lose your all important meat shields, not to mention your easiest source of skill points, mana and possible spouses.
Put skill points into aerokinesis and summon a badass storm around the perimeter to block Jacks' retreats.
>>699
You throw all three skillpoints into aerokinesis, unlocking the following skills:
Variable area of effect (passive skill): All aerokinesis skills with an area of effect can be used at any scale, with mana cost proportional to radius.
The Jacks, in unison, release their grips and begin to run away towards the northeast tunnel. In the interests of badassness, you go all out and spend 150 mana on summoning an immense fifty metre diameter vortex. Immediately the wind begins to howl, waves pick up on the surface of the water, the lights suspended overhead begin to sway, and everyone around you stumbles and tries to brace themselves against the unexpected tempest.
Ariadne grasps Conundrum-chan's hand and the two pull themselves towards the opening of the southwest tunnel, which is flooded. Continue-chan similarly pulls herself using her tentacles, against the wind, into the doorway leading to the spiral staircase upwards. She gives one last vindictive screech and vanishes inside, Theodore still in her grasp. The Jacks cry out in terror, huddle together in small groups, or attempt to find shelter between - or even inside - the cloning pods. Though one or two slip through, there is no sign of any sort of organised retreat.
Your storm will only last a little longer, after which you could possibly head northeast to investigate the mysterious voice commanding the Jacks, or northwest after Alexei and Jacqueline, or southwest after Ariadne and Conundrum-chan, or upstairs after Continue-chan and Theodore. You aren't sure where Aaron and Dr. Gay Hitler have gotten to, but you could certainly go looking for them as well.
Murder all the Jacks for those juicy experience points and mana, then go northeast to investigate.
Murder the Jacks by ritualistically stabbing them in the back, using atmospheric heat to subdue them if necessary.
Grumpy wizards make toxic brew for the evil queen and Jack.
Gaze at my five whipped Jacks in the liquor box.
>>701,702
Striking from amidst the gale like a forgotten coursework deadline at the end of term, you descend upon a lone Jack and brutally stab her in the upper spine, chanting wildly as loud as you can. She collapses forwards, dead, releasing to you two skill points and a hundred mana. All Jacks nearby scream and try to run away like a startled flock. You manage a few grazing slashes, but are able to catch and ritualistically murder only one more before the vortex weakens and disperses.
Despite their ditzy demeanour, they turn out to be surprisingly well coordinated when it comes to evading being murdered. They hide frustratingly just out of sight behind the cloning pods, slipping in and out of your peripheral vision, making feints and generally being anywhere but on the end of your knife. You can't even use your aerokinesis powers to stop them as you aren't sure where they are. Before you know it, they have all escaped in one direction or another, and you are alone in the vast room. It suddenly becomes a very quiet and lonely place.
For killing two sapient beings in a ritualistic manner, you have gained four skillpoints and 200 mana.
You head to the northeast, where the mouth of the Palriga is and where you heard that odd voice commanding the Jacks, but find nobody there. The tunnel opening looms wide and dark before you. Continuing your investigation, you head inside. There are many thin, winding tunnels, some running with water and others not, all in pitch darkness. As your eyes adjust you notice a faint glow to the south. You head towards it, eventually finding yourself in some sort of large underground forest, not unlike the one seen back at >>616.
You turn your head to one side and are startled to find a person standing right next to you, half a metre away at most. You cannot see them well in the faint light of the glowing fungus, but they are rather tall, dressed in something white and close fitting, and you can't quite work out whether they're male or female. "Would you like a hug?" they offer in an androgynous voice - the same one you were seeking.
>>703
Is... is this person a wizard? Are they trying to get close to you in order to poison you and other powerful, evil women like you? Distrustful of the wizard's placid smile and open arms, you take a step back, grip your stone knife and prepare to defend yourself.
>>704
At this most vital and threatening time, you find your mind boggled by something completely irrelevant. The wizard, noting your confusion, explains that haptic communication is important for humans such as yourself, and has been shown to increase levels of oxytocin (which promotes interpersonal bonding) and reduce levels of cortisol (involved in stress). They add that if hugging is not to your liking then they would be just as happy to offer some light tickling or a massage.
>>705
Looking around for liquor boxes, you happen to catch sight of several Jacks, hiding behind and amongst the various strange organic structures nearby. They are watching you with warm curiosity. There are more than five of them, and none appear to have been whipped. Yet.
Accept the hug, then stab the androgynous maybe-wizard in the back. Literally.
>>707
You nod your head solemnly and submit to the wizard's embrace. Their arms wrap tightly around your back and their torso presses against yours, but they are kept at a slight remove by your trilobite plate armour. You feel a strange warmth spreading through your body, dampened by that very distance. It's like the hedgehog's dilemma. If you allow them closer - beneath your armour - then you make yourself vulnerable to attack by others. If not, then you remain isolated and unable to hug or be hugged in earnest.
You find yourself suddenly revolted by these ridiculous girlish pinings. Yes, you decide, before this insidious "hugging" addles your brain any further, you'll make sure this wizard wishes they were wearing armour like you! Behind their back, you extend your hand holding the knife and then plunge it into their spine as hard as you can. It bounces off with a faint metallic plunk. Your breath catches in your throat.
The wizard lets go and commiserates that they'd love to stay and hug you more, but they must be off. They say that they are worried for the mental health of their mistress (who recently transformed into a tentacle monster, and may be suffering some form of bodily dysphoria), hence all the Jacks being sent in to hug her. You were just collateral. With a cheery goodbye, the wizard vanishes into the darkness, surrounded by rustling and giggling as the Jacks follow them.
You are left alone in a small clearing. You find yourself somewhat disorientated, unable to recall which direction you came from. There are a few glowing bulbous fungi dotted around, mostly ahead of you. Countless tall, tubular structures rise from the ground all around you. They are especially thick in the area behind you and to your left. There is also a faint breeze coming from your left. As you are stood there wondering what to do, you hear a scream come from ahead and slightly to your right.
Eat the fungi.
Practice rolling on the ground
>>709
Curious, you walk over to the glowing fungus and carefully inspect it. It consists of many long, thin glabrous stalks, each with a row of luminescent white bell-shaped organs hanging from it. It is cold and slightly slimy to the touch, and gives off no particular odour. With trepidation, you pluck one of the fruits, stick it in your mouth, chew and swallow. It is incredibly bitter and acrid in taste, and almost earns itself a return journey up your oesophagus, though you manage to keep it down.
But why stop there? That's only one of an entire kingdom of life out there waiting to be eaten! You gather specimens of every fungus you can find, from the stipitate to the hirsute, and wolf them down voraciously. After sampling one particularly elusive little mushroom, you find yourself suddenly unable to move. You fall onto one side, short of breath and nauseous. The world fades away into total darkness. You die within seconds.
GAME OVER
Deaths: 29
(Continuing from most recent saved game: >>708)
>>710
As preparation in case you ever catch fire, you practice the "stop drop and roll" procedure. Once you are satisfied you have mastered the technique - complicated as it is - you get up again. You note in passing that it's been a minute or two now since you heard that scream, and you haven't heard anything else since.
Collect fungi for later use, then go towards the scream.
Collect scream for later use.
make sure we still have the files
make sure we still have the flies
>>712
You spend a few minutes stuffing your pockets with fungi; mostly mushrooms, but also a few bracket fungi and even what might be some sort of slime mould. Once satisfied, taking your time, and in no particular hurry, you amble over towards where you think you heard that screaming coming from. The glowing fungi are not even remotely enough to illuminate your path, so you advance slowly, with both hands out in front of you, and treading very carefully.
The ground rises, passes over a ridge, then descends precipitously before levelling off again. You hear some hissing clicking noises from somewhere to your left, and momentarily hope you might've found the source of the screaming, but it seems to be just more trilobites. They scuttle away and are gone before you can react. You continue onwards for quite some way, and eventually reach the shore of an underground lake. The glowing fungi are more common here, as well as on the opposite shore, at least a hundred metres away.
Quite unexpectedly, you stumble across a manmade structure: a short, stubby concrete pier extending into the lake. It is ridged and slopes down at the end, suggesting it may be for launching watercraft. Following the structure inland, you find, embedded into the concrete, the bottom of a ladder leading straight up into the black expanse above. You can hear faintly from above an airy thumping sound, like the sound of a helicopter's rotor, but slower and more irregular.
You sweep the area, still searching for the source of that scream, and happen to spot a human figure lying face down on the shore on the other side of the pier. You can't identify it due to the low lighting, but you're fairly certain it's an adult male, so it's probably either Alexei, Aaron, or a grunt. Judging by their lack of motion, they are either unconscious, dead or playing dead. You try to approach, but as soon as you get within a few metres a vast, dark shape erupts from the water nearby and drives you off. A chance glint from the CRT monitor identifies the creature as Dr. Gay Hitler. He stamps and hisses threatening, before patrolling back and forth next to the human figure. He seems to be trying to prevent you from reaching the body.
>>713
You have a scream prepared in the back of your throat, suitable for any occasion.
>>714
You realise with a start that you don't have any files whatsoever! Worse still, you don't recall ever having had any. This is troubling news indeed. You chew your fingernails nervously, knowing you haven't a single suitable tool to file them down.
>>715
Neither your trilobite plate armour nor your tattered seifuku is - or has ever been - furnished with a fly or zip in the crotch part. The immensity of your lack of both files and flies settles on you, and you suddenly feel as though the rug has been pulled out from under your feet. This world is simply not as you thought it was.
Heat the air around Dr. Gay Hitler until he (she?) gets too hot and runs away.
Inspect body.
Place face in body's buttocks.
Deeply inhale.
Scream, in quick succession, the fifty most common words in the english language.
>>717
Now that you have air immunity (passive skill), you can afford to really meddle with the air without fear of hurting yourself in the process. You spend 60 mana heating the air within two metres of you by 75K, then take a few steps towards the angry arthropod. Dr. Gay Hitler begins to charge towards you, but as soon as he enters your sphere of influence, hisses loudly and slips back into the water. A flawless success, it seems.
>>718
You find that the man has a fairly strong pulse and is breathing, but shows no response to being pinched or prodded. You drag him over to the nearest glowing fungus, pressing it against his face, and identify him as your foster father, Aaron Aaronovitch Aaronov. He is dressed only in his underwear. He has a nail file tucked behind his left ear, but you cannot find any other items on or near him. His skin and hair are not wet, so he doesn't seem to have actually been in the water recently. There is a swollen lump on the back of his head, suggesting he was knocked unconscious by a blunt impact.
Though you hate to admit it, you do actually somewhat care about this man, and you want the best for him, as far as possible. You certainly wouldn't wish upon him the embarrassment of being found by anyone outside the family in the state of having soiled himself. Just to be on the safe side, you have to check if any deposits have been made in his underwear.
You roll him over onto his stomach and, thankful for the fact that there's nobody nearby, thrust your nose into his rear and give a hearty sniff. You don't smell anything in particular.
"What are you doing?" asks a voice from over your shoulder. You jump upright, turn around and ready your trusty ceremonial stone knife out of reflex. Before you is a certain familiar obsidian cube, hovering in midair, atop which are Conundrum-chan and Ariadne. Conundrum-chan has a small flame between her fingers; just enough to illuminate their faces and the local surroundings.
>>719
Panicking, you try to explain yourself. "The be to of, and a, in that have I it for not on with! He as you do at this, but his by from they we say! Her she, or an will - my one all - would there their what! So up out if about, who get which go me!" you reply. That didn't quite come out right.
"...I see." says Ariadne, a smug half-smile playing on her lips, before gracefully changing the subject; "Now, as it happens, Conundrum-chan and I are looking for all those clones of yours. You wouldn't happen to know where they've gone, would you?" Conundrum-chan continues "Quickly please, Ariadne and I are in a hurry." The flame between her fingers suddenly flares up. If you didn't know any better, you'd think they were trying to intimidate the information out of you.
Speaking of clones, you still have four unspent skillpoints left over from those Jacks you ritually murdered earlier.
convert skill points to mana
cast flammability on the other two while they aren't looking
use the rest of our mana to heat the air to 8~900K
>>721
You lack both the mana/skillpoint interconversion and flammability skills, which belong to Jack Conundrum-chan (you being Jack Aaronova).
You are now playing as Jack Conundrum-chan.
You currently have zero mana but three unspent skillpoints, so you do the obvious thing and convert them into 150 mana. You immediately spend 100 on casting flammability on the two Aaronova sisters, Jack and Ariadne. They don't suspect a thing. Unfortunately, you cannot see your perfidious plan through to completion, as you lack the heat air skill.
You are now playing as Jack Aaronova.
With your 170 mana, you can afford to heat the air within a one metre radius of you to a mere 700K, but that proves more than enough to set you spectacularly alight. Though you can resist the effects of your own arcane skills, this calamity was caused by Conundrum-chan's chicanery. Your skin, hair and clothing burst into a roiling mass of flame and smoke. Despite your preparations for this eventuality at >>710,711 rolling can't save you this time. You burn to death horribly and painfully.
GAME OVER
Deaths: 30
(Continuing from most recent saved game: >>720)
Stop being a gibbering madwoman for once and calmly explain that the clones all ran away to places unknown. In exchange for this information, ask for a briefing on Jack Conundrum and Ariadne's activities. Then ask for a ride on what is presumably Stove Stove (or some similar incarnation.) Why not put all our Jacks in one Stove?
Gibber
Summarize plot so far.
>>723
The unhinged lone wolf act was working pretty well for you so far, but perhaps, you decide, just this once, you'll play the adult. You take a deep breath, compose yourself and state in a neutral voice that you last saw the Jacks somewhere over there (pointing to where you came from) but that they have already moved on to greener pastures. You begin to continue with fanciful ideas about sharing plans and joining them on their ride, but as soon as they have the information they want they just ignore you and fly off into the darkness.
>>724
You gibber menacingly in their direction.
Aaron remains unconscious. There is no sign of Dr. Gay Hitler, but he might well still be nearby. From where you are you could try heading back the way you came, following the lakeshore left or rightwards, heading inland, swimming across the lake or climbing the nearby ladder into the cavern ceiling.
>>725
Our protagonist (Aaron Aaronovitch Aaronov) awoke on a cold, hard concrete floor at >>122, with no prior memories whatsoever. He wandered an abandoned facility, before being captured by a certain wheelchairbound undead schoolgirl (Continue Masturbation, AKA Continue-chan), head of a modest camp in the atrium of the facility, consisting of herself, a mysterious androgynous individual (as yet unnamed) and many childlike cloned men wearing combat armour (grunts).
At >>164 Aaron left the camp into the rainforest outside, and followed a red bird (Reginald) to an abandoned camp near a stream. Upstream he found a small building lined with various traps, and a semi-feral young girl leading a band of grunts (Jack Aaronova) whom he adopted as his daughter. They then separated. He was accosted by a bewitching, levitating girl in a lilac dress (Cassandra) who demanded he bring her Jack.
Jack Aaronova, high priestess of her own camp of grunts, performed a nightly ritual human sacrifice (Christmas) to an unknown power. Aaron found his way to her camp and was nearly sacrificed himself, but managed to convince her to return to the trapped building in order to present her to Cassandra. Jack Aaronova summoned a cat (Theodore) by arcane powers obtained from her human sacrifices.
At >>262, Cassandra arrived, but was attacked and knocked unconscious by Jack Aaronova. When she returned to consciousness she was revealed to have amnesia, and was adopted by Aaron, taking the new name Ariadne Aaronova. That night there was a storm, during which Aaron saw a titan figure in the darkness, and Jack Aaronova absconded into the night to return to her camp and perform Christmas.
In the morning Aaron and Ariadne set out to find Jack, were swept downstream by a flooded river and encountered a brontosaurus (Rupert). Aaron ran away and returned to the camp in the abandoned facility where he first awoke, also bringing food to Continue-chan as promised. Several resident grunts were found to have been brutally killed. A strangely androgynous individual (as yet nameless) was revealed to be another member of the camp, and it was mentioned that there were formerly another two members; a couple, presumably Alexei and Jacqueline (introduced later).
Continue-chan made plans to relocate the camp next morning. During the night, at >>315, the camp was attacked by Jack Aaronova, accompanied by Theodore and a few of her grunts. Aaron was nearly killed, but instead kidnapped by Jack. Theodore remained in the atrium and was later met by Ariadne, found to have tamed Rupert. Ariadne, searching for Jack Aaronova and Aaron, instead found a clone of Jack wearing a lab coat (Conundrum Jack, AKA Conundrum-chan) who had been in cahoots with Ariadne before she lost her memory. Theodore and Rupert wandered away into the jungle. Ariadne and Conundrum-chan parted ways, with Ariadne given instructions to bring as many people as she can to a white building on the other side of the river.
She briefly encountered Continue-chan, who ran away, and was then attacked by several undead grunts and rescued by Jack Aaronova. Jack confesses to a vague but terrible crime. The continually reanimating undead attacked the two, until at >>404 they were saved by Aaron and an undead theoretical physicist (Alexei Fujiwara), both with jetpacks. As promised, Ariadne delivered all four to the white building on the other side of the river.
There they met Conundrum-chan. Alexei attempted to kill her, apparently for killing his lover (Jacqueline Conundra) but instead ended up blown up by her. Jack Aaronova summoned another cat (Jimmy Sphincter), before stealing Aaron's jetpack and returning across the river. Conundrum-chan ran into the building to deal with some urgent business. Ariadne and Jimmy followed her, into the building and down a long staircase, leaving Aaron alone on the surface.
Underground, she found Conundrum-chan in control of an enormous cloning facility, directly connected to several subterranean tunnels. After some sapphic exploration, the two were confronted by a well organised group of grunts, claiming to be from the Church of the Schismatics, led by a high priest. Ariadne followed them down a tunnel, into a lava cave, where she was asked to perform Christmas. She killed a grunt, but not in the proper Christmas fashion. The grunts left, and she spoke to the high priest, without seeing him. When she returned she found the grunt she had killed had reanimated. Conundrum-chan appeared and they ran away together.
At >>482 Ariadne left Conundrum-chan behind and explored a side tunnel, where she got trapped in a narrow passage until being saved by the high priest. She passed through and emerged on the surface near the river. She flooded the tunnel, creating a new watercourse (the Palriga Canal). She was reunited with Jack Aaronova, still high priestess of her own group of grunts. They returned to Jack's camp, only to find it under attack by grunts loyal to the Church of the Schismatics.
The high priest, revealed to be none other than Theodore, led the attack, riding on Rupert, before having a change of heart and joining forces with Jack Aaronova. Ariadne saw a stone slab - in use an altar - with engravings of herself and Jack Conundrum-chan, and thereby regained her memories, though she continued to use the name Ariadne. The dead grunts from the attack spontaneously reanimated and attacked all present. Ariadne ran away riding Rupert, abandoning the others, to meet Conundrum-chan in the cloning facility.
She was tricked by Conundrum-chan - disguised as Aaron via her shapeshifting ability - and placed inside a paradisiac simulation containing Aaron, Alexei and Jacqueline. She escaped to find herself trapped in a small room with the other three (still inside the simulation) and a strange obsidian cube (Stove Stove). She inadvertantly killed the other three and Conundrum-chan in a botched escape attempt, before finding at >>590 that she was in fact in a simulation within a simulation, and she hadn't actually killed anyone.
She was rescued from the room by Reginald and ran away down another underground tunnel. She emerged in a large, unlit natural cavern, filled with various unusual fungi, and inhabited by giant trilobite-like creatures. She followed the trilobites back to the cloning facility and successfully tamed one (then named Dr. Gay Hitler). She found Conundrum-chan and Stove Stove - along with Aaron, Alexei and Jacqueline, now awake from the simulation - and joined forces with them. Conundrum-chan explained that three days had passed, during which time the sun never rose, and undead grunts continually besieged the cloning facility. They were joined by Jack Aaronova and Theodore, who had been taking refuge in the caverns.
At >>657 the party was attacked by an enormous mass of undead grunts, led by Continue-chan. They were largely defeated, until Continue-chan transformed into some sort of tentacle monster. Alexei and Jacqueline, and, separately, Aaron and Dr. Gay Hitler ran away, leaving Ariadne, Conundrum-chan, Jack Aaronova, Theodore and Stove Stove. They were saved from Continue-chan by a large number of cloned Jacks, who came in and hugged everyone so tightly that they couldn't fight.
Jack Aaronova, via her aerokinesis, summoned a storm in the underground room. In the ensuing chaos Conundrum-chan and Ariadne escaped together, Continue-chan kidnapped Theodore and withdrew towards the surface, and most of the cloned Jacks retreated into the caverns. Following them, Jack Aaronova encountered a strangely androgynous individual (still nameless) leading the Jacks in a misguided attempt to help Continue-chan. They left abruptly. Jack Aaronova wandered the caverns alone until >>716, when she found Aaron unconscious by the side of a subterranean lake, guarded by Dr. Gay Hitler.
She drove off the trilobite in question, only to be confronted by Conundrum-chan and Ariadne, now demanding to know where the cloned Jacks have gone. She conceded and said where she last saw them, at which point they absconded, leaving her on the lakeside with the unconscious Aaron.
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.