[LP CYOA] Spiral

[treave]

Narrowly, since D almost won.

 

[Nevill]

So I don't get to drink sweet Lambchop's tears while listening to how he warned us about Theseus in our midst all along?

Oh well, we can always try diplomacy with the old man next time. Friendship will prevail in the end!

Narrowly, since D almost won.

How much did we need to level up our pimping skill for it to have succeeded?

When do we learn hug-fu already?

 

[treave]

How much did we need to level up our pimping skill for it to have succeeded?

When do we learn hug-fu already?

Pimping skill was actually only an unlockable in chapters 1 and 2.

But it's not like you can trust Uehara to have your back, in that sense Sakimura actually stopped things from escalating before she changed her mind and decided to try and stab you again. She's still unstable, she's just good at putting up an act. Of course, you can handle her physically 9 times out of 10 thanks to Liam Nii-san's training.

At any rate, to establish the connections that Shinoseki was thinking about before he was distracted, because there's too much to dump in a single update:

Juunimon activating and the appearance of Seika = could be related to the song of the ritual, could also be related to Uehara gathering all of the amulets and doing whatever it is she did in the basement.

The old man = from the words of the man in white, desires to 'take control'. Given the context, may be linked to the zombies that were fighting against the black ghost at the Juunimon in a struggle for 'control'.

Seika = from Shinoseki's vision, apparently the one at the center of this 'sphere'. Possible link to the notes found in the research lab due to 'observation' references. Tendou descendant, so definite link to Yomiki Village, the Juunimon, and the Witch & Maiden ritual.

 

[Kz3r0]

C.
III.
IV.

 

[Baltika9]

A>B
III V

 

[Nevill]

Pimping skill was actually only an unlockable in chapters 1 and 2.

Nooo! Was the choice in the fourth chapter a trap? Did we ruin our character build?

I demand to be able to respec!

But it's not like you can trust Uehara to have your back, in that sense Sakimura actually stopped things from escalating before she changed her mind and decided to try and stab you again.

I, uh, thought she had a fit and exhausted herself. But we can't leave her to her own devices, either. If she is not given reason to doubt, she will definitely stab us just in case what she was told is true.

I guess the only way we can get something out of it is to maintain contact and try to present her with a story different from the one she heard. After all, she knows nothing about us and we have never met before. All she knows of us, she learned here, in this hospital, and it is kinda scewing her perception of us.

The old man = from the words of the man in white, desires to 'take control'. Given the context, may be linked to the zombies that were fighting against the black ghost at the Juunimon in a struggle for 'control'.

Take control over the underworld? That is an ambitious project.

Wait, is Seika the one who has 'control' currently?


Anyway. There is something about this 'observation' that just goes over my head.

Project: Observation and Digitization of Neural Patterns in a Quantum Computing System

Neural patterns and connections are the basis of a sapient organism’s cognitive processes. The ability to directly observe, translate and replicate such complicated patterns will be tested in this project.

“He is your enemy,” shrugs the man. “That should be clear enough: anyone who would shoot you in the head is certainly not your friend. More importantly, he has been lured into revealing himself… into being observed. A shrewd move on your part, though not without sacrifice. This action could yet prove to be an important piece to your game.”

“You have undergone that final change, that twelfth visit to Death. As a result, you will have changed the way you see the world… and in changing the fundamental root of your observation, you will also have changed the world itself through the force of your own will. The path will now be made clear. The labyrinth is still manifest, but the solutions to unravel it now exist. Of course, to properly make use of this opportunity, your journey will become more precarious than ever before: from this moment forward, you will enter the maze as you are now. Safe refuge in this place is no longer a guarantee.”

Eternally asleep yet ever-watching, as though the web is a dream that she must see lest the silk evaporate into nothingness… or worse, take a life of its own.

There is some kind of meaning attributed to this word, but its significance eludes me. Anyone willing to take a shot at this?

 

[treave]

Nooo! Was the choice in the fourth chapter a trap? Did we ruin our character build?

I demand to be able to respec!

Being able to respec would break the balance.

 

[Rex Feral]

C, I, IV

 

[Nevill]

Being able to respec would break the balance.

There is no balance anyway. Guns are clearly imba compared to the petty magic we have. Hence us multiclassing as a mage/rogue and hoping for those lucky backstabs with thermometers to compete.

Priests are OP, too. Control undead, sanctuary, magic weapons... We have artefact uniques and are barely able to keep up.

Are there cheat codes, like in Legend?

 

[treave]

Are there cheat codes, like in Legend?

No, but if you make the proper offerings you can summon the Human Cheat Code from Legend.

 

[Nevill]

No, but if you make the proper offerings you can summon the Human Cheat Code from Legend.

Monsieur Manxing? Can he teach us pick-up-fu?

Wait, we don't have to offer our dong as a sacrifice, do we?

 

[Kipeci]

A I IV

Ditch them.

 

[treave]

Wait, we don't have to offer our dong as a sacrifice, do we?

No, you just have to offer all the women.

 

[Nevill]

As long as we can keep Ei.

And what do we get if we offer all men instead?

 

[treave]

As long as we can keep Ei.

Zhang Manxing does not discriminate.

And what do we get if we offer all men instead?

The OP Human Cheat Code and other Zhang, Jue.

 

[Nevill]

treave, a few questions.

First, a bit of a meta one. It is clear that Shinoseki Adachi chooses his character and his destiny himself, but how much of Seiji's character was a part of a backstory? The elements, the significance of which we had no clue about were out there since the beginning - Uehara's amulet (and thus a connection to her sister), Maeda's personal tragedy, Mori's investigation - all of those featured in the story before we could link our identity with his.

It may be a strange question, but is the assumption that Seiji's actions, motivations and personality were set in stone in the beginning correct, or could we have ended with a different 'original' character altogether based on our choices?

There are still a few comments, like Maeda's, that make me think our past is being retconned as we develop Adachi's character further.

Second one is about the voices. Off the top of my head I quoted some of the instances where we have heards them.

Spoiler

I… this caliber might skid off the skull, so I should…

[...]

I should have shot him earlier.

There is no point in shooting him.

I’m a murderer.

He deserved it.

[...]

You do nothing. Once he has satisfied himself with her, he will move on and leave you unmolested.

[...]

She knows I’m lying.

The voice of a strange thought flashes through your mind, swiftly followed by another.

Kill her. Kill her now.

[...]

That’s right. There should be no more killing.

Bitchbitchbitchbitchbitchbitchbitchbitchbitch-

[...]

Pawns – Pieces of the game - Unnecessary action –

[...]

I’m so sorry, Saki.

“I’m so sorry, Kana.”

You hear two voices simultaneously - one with your ears, and one inside your head. Both are apologizing, though the names... the subjects of the apology... are different.

[...]

Why? Why not. Do it. It is a bad idea. It is a foolish idea. It is an illogical idea. Do it, you coward. The voices whisper madly in your mind.

It’s now or never.

It was a bad idea. It was a foolish idea. It was an illogical idea. You did it.

Now, these voices clearly have personalities. There is an agressive and violent one, there is an inhumanly cynical one, there is a kind and gentle one, and there is a rational and grounded one.

Sometimes the voice is our own, but more often then not it comes from, shall we say, a different fragment of our psyche.

Do we hear them as if they were real voices? A few updates suggest that we do. If so, do they sound differently, as if they belong to different people? Can we learn to identify them? How many are there?

Would be nice to know what we are getting into once Cooper integrates them into our psyche, as he promised.


On a loosely related note, I have finally got what Cooper said to us:

Spoiler

You blink. “Are you saying… I’m going to get superpowers?”

“What? No. Of course not. Nothing so ludicrous,” snorts the man disgustedly. “You have undergone that final change, that twelfth visit to Death. As a result, you will have changed the way you see the world… and in changing the fundamental root of your observation, you will also have changed the world itself through the force of your own will. The path will now be made clear. The labyrinth is still manifest, but the solutions to unravel it now exist. Of course, to properly make use of this opportunity, your journey will become more precarious than ever before: from this moment forward, you will enter the maze as you are now. Safe refuge in this place is no longer a guarantee.”

That we enter the maze 'as we are now' suggests that we have established ourselves as a dominant personality in our body and during all of the following night we will be keeping our memories.

It means that we can try and maintain the course we pick without fear that the next incarnation will mess everything up. It was one of the reasons why our relations with Uehara got to such a bad point - all of those shifting personalities must have seemed awfully strange/fake to her while no one else noticed, assuming that we always were the kind of guy they encountered that night.

Does he imply that the whoever observes this world has the power to change it? Is it what the old man is after? Are we going back to EPIC again?

The mere fact that Cooper continues to refer to the following nights suggests to me that there will be further restarts down the line, but those are not guaranteed. I assume that we should treat everything related to the old man and other powerful entities that might be capable to undo us for good as extremely unsafe from now on.

I should probably scrap my last assessment of the plot and try to re-eveluate it in light of the new information.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

How much did we need to level up our pimping skill for it to have succeeded?

When do we learn hug-fu already?

Pimping skill was actually only an unlockable in chapters 1 and 2.

nooooooooooo


*sigh* its a shame we didn't break her. Would have made things rather hilarious when the others found us.

We can stay with the others so long as we hide the book. Any other option will result "Kayano" or whoever she really is going nuts and trying to take it.

 

[Nevill]

Well, now we know that there are at least two girls who would do anything for us, Maeda and Seika, so there must be something attractive in our personality.

I bet if we decide to stay in the hospital indefinitely and settle down here we could have all the female patients who die or disappear around here to ourselves, eventually becoming the local pimping god. Just have to keep the old man from usurping the control of the place, he will obviously use it for subpar goals, like attaining immortality or conquering nations with zombocalipsys necromancy.

We can stay with the others so long as we hide the book. Any other option will result "Kayano" or whoever she really is going nuts and trying to take it.

No one would be able to take her if we could return Ei at will. Unless this is what you are saying.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Nevill: that is what I'm saying. Also, brilliant idea about settling down. Just why are we trying to leave anyway? In here we are immortal and have a harem. It's just a matter of time. Yet another reason we should have broken Uehara and made her our fu--I mean our valued harem member. Also missed out on sakimura barging in and seeing her afterward.
Oh, well.

C>B III IV>V>I

Given that these rituals seem to take a long time to cast, I'm not sure how much use the agility one is straight off. Though I'll admit I was tempted to that too. Later on it'd allow feats of strength though, but what use is strength against a ghost?

I'd rather be able to simply put up a barrier and/or crush people.

 

[Nevill]

Given that these rituals seem to take a long time to cast, I'm not sure how much use the agility one is straight off.

You are confusing incantations, spells and rituals. Here is an incantation of 'exorcism':

Spoiler

Hear me, the eight myriad deities assembled on the High Heavenly Plains. Thus I speak.

Yield to my command the spirits of purification, as it was before the Great Mother Izanagi returned to the darkness and banished her divine children to the sky. Thus I speak.

Through my hand all manner of catastrophe, calamity and sin shall pass, and be purified in malice. All sins shall be cast into the darkness of the earth as a blessing that rejoins the eight myriad sinners assembled in the Lightless Abyss.

Thus, I speak.

Short and to the point.

The one that took us a long time was a ritual. The name itself suggests a lenghty process.

We need to work on our physical capabilities to be able to outrun enemies, dodge knives, claws - and potentially bullets - and otherwise get out of harm's way, not to punch out ghosts. Remember, our active enemy is still a human, and his helpers - the ones that we know of, Usui and Taketatsu, are corporeal. Both are the leads of the Observation Project, by the way, which only makes me more certain that the old man is Juuzo.

Though if we could open gaps in humans, that probably would not hurt, too.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Ah, thanks. I didn't understand the difference. Amended my vote to a conditional for gaps then and a conditional for agility behind that.

See, while I agree that agility would help, it's still not like a point in agility. We'd only be able to dodge when we knew there was a threat already. In a situation like when Uehara pinned us from behind, it's useless - though hopefully strength would make up for that down the road.

The gaps ability is pretty awesome though. No more locked doors.

 

[Nevill]

Ah, thanks. I didn't understand the difference.

Well, it's just my assumption based on what usually constitutes a ritual as opposed to a spell/chant.

Agility is II, though, not I.

It still would help us if we suspect we are heading into a trap, which we hopefully will do more often from now on, or in getting out of a trap relatively intact.

Still, not to turn this into agruing over techniques like in Legend. As long as we get a bonding session with Ei and something other than another ritual, I am fine with it, whatever it will be.

Added gaps as a conditional myself.

 

[Rex Feral]

Lets not feed the book anymore tho. Don't want to go full DEVOUR SOUL here. Besides doesn't feeding of maliciousness make you more...malicious? And last thing we need is an Evil Book trying to kill/posses us.

 

[GreyViper]

B and III , V .
Sphere diplomacy indeed. :D

“I think I saw someone… Something happened, I’m not sure what, then he told me that you were the last key. That I had to turn you into the gate, the sacrifice. That if I did not, you would reach Seika-nee by yourself

Ha nice use of pawn.

Would be amusing if by the end of this we would end up like this guy.

 

[treave]

treave, a few questions.

First, a bit of a meta one. It is clear taht Shinoseki Adachi chooses his character and his destiny himself, but how much of Seiji's character was a part of a backstory? The elements, the significance of which we had no clue about were out there since the beginning - Uehara's amulet (and thus a connection to her sister), Maeda's personal tragedy, Mori's investigation - all of those featured in the story before we could link our identity with his.

It may be a strange question, but is the assumption that Seiji's actions, motivations and personality were set in stone in the beginning correct, or could we have ended with a different 'original' character altogether based on our choices?

There are still a few comments, like Maeda's, that make me think our past is being retconned as we develop Adachi's character further.

Yeah, I was continuously retconning the background over the first half of the LP based on the choices made, not only for Shinoseki, but for the other characters too, to a certain extent. All those elements you mentioned would have been explained in a different way should other paths have been taken.

Can't say I'm perfectly satisfied with how the experiment turned out... but that's on me.

Second one is about the voices. Off the top of my head I quoted some of the instances where we have heards them.

Now, these voices clearly have personalities. There is an agressive and violent one, there is an inhumanly cynical one, there is a kind and gentle one, and there is a rational and grounded one.

Sometimes the voice is our own, but more often then not it comes from, shall we say, a different fragment of our psyche.

Do we hear them as if they were real voices? A few updates suggest that we do. If so, do they sound differently, as if they belong to different people? Can we learn to identify them? How many are there?

Would be nice to know what we are getting into once Cooper integrates them into our psyche, as he promised.

They sound like generic voices to you. It's easy to mistake the voices for your own thoughts if not for the shift in personality. For the rest, probably spoilers.

Does he imply that the whoever observes this world has the power to change it? Is it what the old man is after? Are we going back to EPIC again?

I said it was a prequel, didn't I?

What you're saying about observing the hospital world is partially right, from a certain point of view, but again it's only a piece of the bigger picture. There's no epic universe saving plot in here, though.

Well, now we know that there are at least two girls who would do anything for us, Maeda and Seika, so there must be something attractive in our personality.

It might have been glossed over, but the Seiji that Maeda knew, and the one that Seika knew, behaved differently.

The gaps ability is pretty awesome though. No more locked doors.

For a more esoteric way of application, it's possible to learn how to open gaps in people's minds.

Spoiler

And ultimately turn them into vessels for Yog-Sothoth. Ia!